THE NATION'S 



SIN AND PUNISHMENT; 



OR, 



THE HAND OF GOD 



VISIBLE IN THE 



OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY. 



BY A CHAPLAIN OF THE U. S. ARMY, 

Who has been, thirty years, a resident of the Slave States. 



NEW YORK: 

M. DOOLADY, Agent, 49 WALKER ST. 

AilERICAN NEWS COMPANY, 121 NASSAU STREET. 

E, CRAIGHEAD, Pklxtee. 

1864. 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1S64, by 

STEPHEN A. HODGMAN. 

In the Qerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 

Southern District of New York. 



Stereotyped by VINCENT DILL, 

No. 94 Beekman St., N. Y. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Dedication. . . . • • • .6 

Author's Introduction. . . • • • 7 

I._ Wars— Just or Unjust. .... 11 

II.— "What is Slavery. . . . . .22 

ni.— Origr: cf African Slavery. ... 30 

rV. — Early Opposition to Slavery. . . .35 

V. — The Middle Passage. .... 44 

VI. — The last Crime op Slavery. . . .63 

Vn. — The Expiation. . . . . .76 

ym.— The " Malum in se " Theory. . . .94 

IX.— Christianity versus Slavery. . . .114 

X. — The Voice of Blood. .... 133 

XI.— Rachel's Lamentation. . . . .146 

Xn. — Enslavement of the mind. . . . .166 

Xni.— Breeding Slaves for Market. . . .176 

XIV. — The JklARRLiGE Altar thrown down. . . 185 

XV. — The Proclamation. .... 198 

X^T:. — How to dispose of the liberated slaves. . 207 

XVn. — Religious Character of the Negro. . . 218 

XVIII. — The Colored Regiments. .... 228 

XIX. — Author's Experience among the Rebels. . 242 
XX.— Conclusion— Three Parties. . . . .258 



DEDICATION 



To the Christian people of this great and 
free land, this little volume is affectionately 
dedicated. We have not, as we should have 
done, recognized the hand of our God, in the 
terrible judgments that have come on our 
Nation. The design of this little volume 
is, to trace those judgments to their legiti- 
mate and just cause, and to view, in its re- 
ligious aspect, the sanguinary strife, through 
which we are now passing. As a Nation, 
we are guilty^ in having tolerated and up- 
held for a long series of years, the most 
matured system of iniquity and oppression, 
that devDs or wicked men ever yet devised. 
The wonder is, that, the Divine judgments 
did not descend' upon us long ago. But our 
eyes have been opened at length, and we 
are thankful, that our land is to be cleans- 
ed from its pollutions. 

The Authoe. 

In Cam^^ November^ 1863. 



THE AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 



The writer of tliis fugitive Essay, has no 
apology to raake, for this Introduction of 
himself to the Public, but he deems it pro- 
per to remark, that, having received a North- 
ern birth and education, he has spent the 
last thirty-two years of his life in the Slave 
States. He thinks, therefore, that he can 
say, without the charge of vanity, he feels 
competent, from his own yyersomH Icnowledge^ 
to give, correctly, the characteristics of Sla- 
very, and of Slave-holders. He would also 
further remark, that he is not now, and that 
he never has been an Aholitionist^ of the 
radical school. He has always been an anti- 
slavery man. But from the very hour when 
the Kebels opened their batteries on Fort 
Sumter, he has been an earnest and practi- 



8 THE AUTHOR S INTRODUCTION. 

cal Emancipationist; for lie then became 
assured tliat the downfall of slavery had 
been decreed of Heaven, and he knew that 
it would be only madness to be found in op- 
position to the Will of God, as revealed in 
the terrible dispensations of his Providence. 
He had always endeavored to stand, on coiv- 
servative ground, acting in the spirit of con- 
ciliation and compromise, in which spirit the 
nation had grown up as a unity, and had 
advanced to a degree of unexampled pros- 
perity. He belonged to that branch of the 
Church, which entirely ignored the right of 
Ecclesiastical bodies, to legislate on the sub- 
ject of slavery. His motive, as well as that 
of the brethren of the same Church, who 
acted in this conservative spirit, was to pre- 
vent, if possible, the dismemberment of the 
Church, and the dissolution of the States' 
Union. 

But we have been disappointed. Our pol- 
icy was wrong. This confession does not 
imply that we had adopted a wrong policy, 



THE author's introduction. 9 

intentionally, to accomplisli a laudable pur- 
pose. The Union has been dissolved, to be 
reconstructed, we doubt not, on a better, 
and surer foundation. The Church has been 
rent asunder, notwithstanding all our con- 
servatism. Slavery has done the mischief. 
Conservatism could not prevent it. We 
were only mistaken as to what the Almigh- 
ty had willed. The Abolitionists were but 
instruments who had a special agency to 
perform in the work. But no thanks to 
them! the war had become necessary. A 
wise and just Providence has directed all 
the steps. The writer exults in the belief, 
that the revolution will be most glorious, 
in its results, to the Nation at large, and to 
the interests of the universal Church Mili- 
tant. 



I. 

WARS— JUST OR UNJUST. 

I HAVE somewhere read, in history, of two 
brothers, who quarreled for the possession of a 
throne. The contest became so fierce, that each 
decided to raise an armj^, and to settle their 
claims on the field of blood. When the combat 
was over, the two brothers were fomid, side by 
side, in the embrace of death. Their mutual ani- 
mosity had been so violent, that they had sought 
and encountered one another, in single combat, 
and had fallen, on the same spot, each pierced by 
the other's sword. This was a war between two 
brothers. 

The war now desolating this once prosperous 
and happy country, is a war between brothers/ 

Tell me, ye people of America, who boast of 
your Christianity, how, think you, a Holy God 
must look down, from his glorious habitation, on 
such a strife between brothers ! How must the 



12 WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 

blessed and holy angels view such a contest as 
this ! With what sentiments must every truly 
devout and Christian philanthropist throughout 
the world, regard this grand display of rage and 
hellish passions! Can it be imagined, that pure 
and holy beings, either in heaven or upon earth, 
can look on such a contest with emotions of sat- 
isfaction or complacency? Does the exhibition of 
such demoniacal wrath, indicate that man was, 
originally, endowed with reason and a moral con- 
science ? that the image of Deity was instamped 
on his heart? and that he was made, in form and 
soul, erect, and superior to savage beasts whose 
nature thirsts for blood ? 

The existence of war proves that man is a 
fallen being. He fell from his allegiance to a 
Holy God. This is the reason, and no other can 
be assigned, why he is ever made willing to imbrue 
his hand in the blood of his brother man. If it 
were not so, this earth would never have become 
the theater of wars, and deadly strifes ; but the 
whole family of Adam had remained united to- 
gether, in the bonds of love and a sacred brother- 
hood. 

What a terrible thing sin is ! It sowed the first 
seeds of discord ! It first caused the tocsin of 



WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 13 

war to be sounded in the peaceful realms of the 
new and green earth, which God created and de- 
signed as the abode of man ! It has strewn every 
battle-field with the dead and mangled corpses of 
earth's children ! 

What a frightful thing sin is ! No wonder a 
Holy God hates sin, with an infinite and eternal 
hatred ! 

Yiew war, in its inception and in its progress 
— what are its paraphernalia, and its accompani- 
ments ? Human ingenuity has been taxed to the 
utmost extent — science has been laid under con- 
tribution, to furnish the most deadly ancl destruct- 
ive implements of death that could be invented. 

See the opposing hosts drawn up in battle 
array ; they are members of the same common 
family of God, who have fallen out with one an- 
other, and are met to settle the controversy. The 
weapons of death gleam in their hands. The pas- 
sions of hell rage and burn in their hearts. The 
trumpet sounds ! Wild and savage yells are 
heard ! It is the signal for the commencement 
of the slaughter — the battle begins ! There is a 
deafening roar of artillery — the plains are envel- 
oped in clouds of smoke — the ground is strewn 
with the dead — tlie air is rent with the groans 



14 WARS — JUST OR UXJUST. 

of the dying ! This is war ! aye, this is honor- 
able and christian warfare ! And this is the 
mode in which brethren choose to settle the dif- 
ferences that arise between them ! Can a right- 
eous God approve of such horrible carnage ? 

It has been represented that war is a necessary 
evil. It is so, only to the extent that sin abounds 
— for every war is the effect of sin. 

Defensive wars are justifiable. The present 
civil war, as undertaken to defend and maintain 
the Government of the country, and to perpetuate 
the glorious inheritance of civil and religious lib- 
erty, bequeathed to us by our ancestors, is a 
necessary, and, therefore, a just war. But, as 
undertaken by the Rebels, to break up the Gov- 
ernment, it is not a just war, but a horrible 
revolt against God, and against human rights. 
There was no imperative and absolute necessity, 
that forced them to engage in this war. They 
did it voluntarily, and without a just cause. 
Therefore, there is no palliation for their guilt, 
and the vengeance of a just God, is inflicted, 
and must be inflicted on them. 

Notwithstanding that all wars are the result 
of sin, yet, as I have already intimated, some 
wars are just and necessary. And, it may be 



WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 15 

said, that, as permitted by the Supreme Being, 
all wars result in good to the human family. 
We cannot always tell what good, but some- 
times we can. 

We are sure that the war of our Independence, 
which laid the foundations of the greatest nation, 
and the best government on earth, effected an 
amount of good which it is scarcely possible for 
the human intellect to estimate. 

The Mexican war was overruled for good, in- 
asmuch as it resulted in wresting, from a state of 
anarchy and misrule, a large portion of this con- 
tinent, and bringing it under the empire of free- 
dom. It does not require the spirit of vaticination 
to foresee, at this late hour of the day, that the 
whole of this New World, discovered by Colum- 
bus, is destined to be brought under that Empire 
of Freedom. 

And who does not believe that this present great 
civil war, will be, in its results, as glorious for 
the family of man at large, as any that has ever 
preceded it, in the history of nations ? 

In the first place, it will be the overthrow of 
Slavery, which has so long been a withering and 
blighting curse to the richest and most beautiful 
section of our wide domain. If that should be 



16 WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 

the only result, it will be worth all the blood 
and treasure expended in the achievement of so 
desirable an end. In all my reading, I must 
say, I have never read of a more matured system 
of fraud, and wholesale murder and oppression, 
than this system of slavery, which has been so 
long tolerated under the auspices of our, so 
called, free government. For one, I rejoice for 
my country, that it is to be blotted out forever. 
In the second place, the effect of this war, 
will be, to cement and strengthen the bonds of 
the Union. There is little probability that we 
shall ever see another civil war in this land. If 
eleven powerful States, combining their resour- 
ces and strength, could not succeed in breaking 
up the Government, but have been so severely 
punished for their mad undertaking, what likeli- 
hood is there, that any other States will ever, 
hereafter,- venture upon a similar experiment? 
No, w^e believe that all our sectional disputes and 
differences that may hereafter arise, will be set- 
tled by ballots, and not by bullets. There will 
never be another appeal to arms to decide polit- 
ical questions and local disputes. It is some- 
thing, surely, to have attained a purpose so de- 
sii-able as this. 



WARS — JUST OR UXJUST. 17 

In the last place, this war has served to de- 
velope 'the fact, that the people of this country 
have a government which can maintain itself, 
not only against foreign enemies, but against do- 
mestic foes, and traitors at home. The fact has 
been illustrated, that there is, in the heart of the 
masses of the people, a love for the Union, even 
stronger than love for life itself, which would 
cause them to rally to the defence of that Union, 
when endangered, under any and all circumstan- 
ces. If this civil war were ended to-day, we 
should have no fears in regard to the perpetu- 
ity of the Union, not even if the Nations of 
Europe should conspire together, for its destruc- 
tion. In view of the future of our country, which 
was also the country of Washington and of 
Franklin, we can say, esto pcrpefua, in the full 
belief, that the ejaculation is not uttered in vain. 

We see , therefore , how it is , that the Almighty 
sends war, and overrules it, for the accomplish- 
ment of great good to the nations. Doubtless, 
all the wars that have ever occurred in the world, 
have resulted in some good, although shortsighted 
mortals might not be able to discover it, at the 
moment. 

The Lord hath said, in his word, that, he ivill 



18 WARS — JUST OR UXJUST. 

overturn, and overturn, and overturn, till he shall 
reign, whose right it is, and he will give him the 
kingdom. The most obvious meaning of this lan- 
guage is, that revolution shall succeed revolution 
among the nations, until the reign of Jesus Clirist 
is established, and then, there shall be peace on 
earth. 

All the wars that have been waged of late 
years, and all the changes that are now taking 
place, in the condition of nations, seem ordained 
to prepare the way for the reig-n of Jesus Christ. 
The two last wars in Europe, the Crimean and 
the Italian, broke the power of the two most for- 
midable despotisms in the old world. And this 
great American war, is destined to subvert and 
destroy Slavery, in the new world. 

The reign of Jesus Christ, will be one of 
universal peace and freedom. Previous to the 
birth of Christianity, Slavery prevailed generally 
throughout the world. But it has been gradu- 
ally retreating, as the Cross has advanced in 
triumph, till now. I believe there are but two 
countries under the influence of . the Christian 
Keligion, where slavery exists, viz ; the Spanish 
West Indies, and Brazil, in South America. And 
it is known, that, it is but an imperfect form 



WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 19 

of Christianity that exists in those countries. 
But we may rest assured, that, it will not be 
many years before they will be fully redeemed 
from the curse, and the shackles shall fall from 
the limbs of every slave. 

There are many signs which clearly indicate, 
that we are approaching the Millennial age of 
the world. Who can enumerate the discoveries 
and improvements in Science and Art, of the 
last fifty years, including the Steam Engine, the 
Eail Road, the Magnetic Telegraph, and a thou- 
sand other things, all of which are calculated 
to bring the scattered race of Adam nearer to- 
gether, as one family, in the bonds of brother- 
hood and charity. And who can speak, in ade- 
quate terms, of the operations of the. Press, in 
the diffusion of knowledge? The Bible has been 
translated into almost every spoken language, 
and millions of copies have been put into cir- 
culation. 

Under this belief, of the near approach of the 
Millennium, I am willing to see revolution suc- 
ceed revolution, in the affairs of nations. I re- 
joice to witness the great stoppings of the Al- 
mighty on the theater of the world. Nor do 
I feel dismayed, at the fearful overturnings and 



"20 WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 

earthquakes, by which one gigantic system of 
tyranny after another is overthrown. I believe 
that we shall still hear of wars, and rumors of 
wars, according to the word of Jesus Christ. 
But, from the signs of the times, I believe these 
wars will speedily take place, and it will not 
be very long before the last battle shall be 
fought. 

England, Spain, and perhaps some other nations 
have debts of long standing to be settled, which, 
I think, will be exacted of them before very 
long, in blood. If I know what justice is, and, 
if I can read aright, there must be such debts 
standing charged against them, in the Book of 
the Most High, and when the hour for settle- 
ment comes, as come it will, they must meet the 
account. 

God does punish the nations for their sins! 
Our nation, to day, in sackcloth and ashes, attests 
the truth of tliis declaration. And if this favored 
land has been so severely judged, -will He, can 
He, consistently with the principles of Eternal 
Justice, let other nations escape? As sure as 
God reigns on his throne in Heaven, he will not. 
Tlie innocent blood shed by them, will be ex- 
acted of them, in turn. 



WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 21 

There may be some now living, who, though 
not very young, may be permitted to see the last 
bloody conflict, which is to precede the dawning 
of the millennial day, when the olive branch of 
peace shall be seen throughout the world. The 
best commentators are of the opinion, that, the 
prophecies are nearly fulfilled, and that the com- 
mencement of that wished for, golden age of the 
world, is near at hand. 



22 



II. 
WHAT IS SLAVERY? 

To a conscience, liumanized by the influences 
of a christian civilization, as well as to an en- 
lightened reason, there is something repugnant in 
the theory, that one-half, or any portion, of the 
children of Adam, were born to be slaves and 
drudges for the other half. If the theory were 
true, one would suppose that men should come 
into the world, with some distinctive marks upon 
them, indicating to what destiny they were born. 

We receive the Bible account of the creation 
of man ; and, placing implicit confidence in the 
authenticity of that account, we cannot, for a mo- 
ment, entertain the notion, that, during the first 
generation of man, even in the life-time of Adam, 
some of his sons and daughters were enslaved 
by the others, and bought and sold by them, as 
merchandise. But wliy not, if slavery is an Insti- 
tution of Divine origin ? Surely, we have a right 



WHAT IS SLAVERY? 23 

to suppose that every institution of a Divine na- 
ture — as marriage, and others which God estab- 
lished — must have flourished in the garden of 
Eden, and during the earlier ages, when the world 
was far more free from the eflects of sin, than it 
has been at any subsequent period ; yet there is 
nothing said of the existence of slavery in the 
garden of Eden, and, in the Mosaic account of the 
creation, there is no mention made of any such 
institution. 

We have learned men and eminent theologians 
in our day, proclaiming the Divine origin of 
slavery. They are, at this hour, edifying their 
brethren throughout the Southern Confederacy, by 
teaching that this new government has been or- 
dained of God, for the purpose of conserving and 
perpetuating the peculiar and Divine institution. 
I am acquainted with one of these reverend lec- 
turers. An Englishman by birth, he settled first 
in Syracuse, N. Y., where he distinguished him- 
self as an earnest and zealous advocate for aboli- 
tion. Afterwards, he removed to the South, and 
soon became equally earnest and zealous for the 
divine right of slavery, and, months before the 
war commenced, openly avowed and preached Se- 
cession from his pulpit. 



24 WHAT IS SLAYERY? 

Another lecturer, Dr. Palmer, is entitled to be 
considered as a leader in this class of diYines. 
But he was born in South Carolina, and some 
allowance may be made for him, on account of 
the peculiar training and education he receiYcd 
in his youth. He asserted in a public discourse, 
in New Orleans, that the cause of the Confeder- 
acy was a more just and sacred cause, than that 
for which Washington and the EcYolutionary 
liithers fought. He also declared publicly, that, 
he should lose his confidence in God, as a God 
of truth and justice, if he should giYC success to 
the arms of the North. How strikingly we see 
Ycrified, in such cases, the old heathen adage, 
" Quern Deus vult ferdere, prius dementat.''^ 

No, the most that can be said in faYor of 
slavery is, that, like war and many other evils 
that afflict the world, it was engendered by sin. 
It belongs to the same family of ills that were 
let loose, when Pandora's box was opened, to 
scourge humanity. To say that it was ever de- 
signed as a blessing to the human family, would 
be, in effect to affirm that the curse which Noah 
pronounced on Canaan, was a blessing ! It would 
be to put darkness for light; to call evil good. 
And to assert that slavery is a Christian Insti- 



WHAT IS SLAVERY? 25 

tution, would be tantamount to saying, that Christ 
did not come into the world to redeem men from 
under the curse of sin. But, to teach that the ob- 
ject of his Heavenly Mission to the earth, was 
to rivet the fetters of bondage on the slave, in- 
stead of breaking every yoke, is a piece of im- 
piety bold enough to bring the blush of shame on 
the very cheeks of damnation. 

No one, who makes any pretensions to piety, 
will controvert the position that slavery, as it ex- 
ists, and as it has existed for long ages in the 
world, was originally produced by sin. It is one 
of the works of the Devil. But Christ came into 
the world to destroy the works of the Devil. 

The principle that mi^ht makes right, is the 
principle that has practically governed the world, 
during Satan's dominion over it. It is the prin- 
ciple that has made slaves of one part of the 
family of man, and tyrants of another part of the 
same family. 

The first slaves, as it is generally supposed, 
were captives taken in war, sold or distributed 
among the conquerqrs, and afterwards held by 
them as bondmen. 

What would be thought by the civilized world, 
of any christian nation, who should sell the prison- 



26 WHAT IS SLAVERY ? 

ers taken in war to be held as slaves for life, 
and their posterity? What would the philanthro- 
pists of England say, if our Government should 
cause the Confederate prisoners, taken in this war, 
to be sold into perpetual slavery ? Yet, if slavery 
is a Divine Institution, and if it was just in its 
origin, we ought to do this ; and certainly, no one 
could complain of the injustice, without finding 
fault with an ordinance of God ! As a measure of 
retaliation, it might be viewed as an act of retri- 
butive justice, for their enslavement of the Africans. 
And we know that the law of retaliation is strictly 
just, although militating againt a dispensation of 
mercy, like that under which we have been brought 
by the Gospel. Dr. Palmer and his fellow labor- 
ers in preaching their new gospel, could not com- 
plain of our Government, if they should sell every 
rebel captured, himself included in the number, to 
be forever hereafter held as slaves. 

But instead of fighting for such a principle, we 
make war against it, and it is nothing but oppo- 
sition to this new and diabolical theory, that has 
involved us in this terrible civil strife, and clothed 
our nation in sackcloth. 

What is slavery? Analyze the thing — Let its 
foul and corrupt carcass be dissected, and if any 



WHAT IS SLAVERY? 27 

one can see in it, aught but sin, he must look 
through a medium strangely distorted. 

What is slavery? Man puts a chain on the 
limbs of his brother man, — deprives him of his 
freedom — calls him his slave — and compels him, 
with whip in hand, to do his bidding! This is 
slavery ! 

Laws are enacted, legalizing the act, and giving 
him the right to hold his victim as a slave. Laws 
are enacted by the stronger party — the miserable 
slave has no voice in enacting the law, and is 
powerless to resist it — He is not now his own 
man — He belongs to another. He cannot use his 
feet any longer to walk whither soever he will. 
He is not at liberty to employ his hands to do 
whatsoever he will — He is not free to exercise 
his reason to choose and determine for himself, 
what actions are right — He has no right to the use 
of speech, to utter what words he may think most 
suitable — but every member, and every faculty of 
his mind and body, belongs to another ; and he 
can only employ them, as instruments, to do the 
pleasure of another, whom he must call, master. 
This is Slavery, To say, that the Merciful Father 
willed it, — to call it a Divine Institution, may justly 
be considered as evidence of a perverted Intellect. 



28 ' WHAT IS SLAVERY? 

Has the wretched slave a wife now? Has he 
a child ? Has he a father, or a mother ? Has he 
a legal right to cherish and protect his wife? 
Can he live with, and support her, according to 
God's Institution ? Can he educate his child, and 
train it in the way he should go, according to 
God's Command? Can he comfort and support 
his aged and infirm parents, as the dictates of 
natural affection, and the duties of religion re- 
quire ? 

No ! he has no right to his own wife — no right 
to his child — no right even to visit his old mother ! 
— His wife has been sold and is the slave, or the 
mistress of another — His child belongs to another 
master, and has been transported to a distant state, 
and he shall never see that child again. This is 
slavery 1 To call it a Divine Institution would 
be to give utterance to that which would be no- 
thing short of the boldest blasphemy. 

Yet, this is the glorious Institution, for which 
the Southern people made war against their breth- 
ren. For the inestimable privilege of holding a 
portion of God's children in bondage, and carrying 
on a traffic in the bodies and souls of men, they 
rebelled against the ordinance of God, refusing to 
" he subject to the powers that if." 



WHAT IS SLAVERY? 29 

They were prosperous and happy under the best 
Government the wisdom of man ever devised, but 
they were not content. They wished to carry 
chains and slavery into new Territory, and to pro- 
pagate the curse, where it had never existed. 
And because they could not obtain a guaranty, 
from the Government, of immunity and protection, 
in the accomplishment of the damnable purpose, 
they stained their souls with the crime of Treason. 
This is one of the fruits of Slavery I " Every tree 
shall be known by its fruit." 



30 



III. 
ORIGIN OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

If we may place any credence in the records of 
History, the first cargo of African Slaves was 
landed and sold in the island of Hispaniola, or St. 
Domingo. A severe retribution, as written in the 
subsequent history of that island, followed this in- 
vasion of the natural rights of man. Bancroft, in 
his inimitable work, remarks ; " Hayti, the first 
spot in America, that received African Slaves, was 
the first to set the example of African Liberty." 
For years, they have possessed and ruled the isl- 
and, an enterprising and independent people. The 
tyrants, who held them in bondage, were put to 
death, or driven into exile, a significant display of 
the stern justice of Heaven I 

The first slaves sold in the United States, then 
English Colonies, were brought from Africa, in a 
Dutch Man of War, which entered the mouth of 
James river, in the year 1620, four months before 
the landing of the Puritan pilgrims, on the rock of 



ORIGIN OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 31 

Plymouth. So that, by a singular coincidence, tho 
vessels of the same country, Holland, brought both 
the pilgrims and the slaves, to our shores, in the 
course of the same memorable year. 

If we would fully comprehend the origin of 
slavery, in our land, it will be necessary to follow 
the kidnappers to Africa, and understand the man- 
ner by which they originally established their right 
of property in the bodies of African men and 
women. We must not forget that the claim of a 
divine right has been set up, in this age of progress 
and reform. 

If the kidnapper had a Divine warrant, or a 
special commission from Heaven, to alight on the 
shores of Africa, to murder and capture the de- 
fenceless inhabitants, and transport them to dis- 
tant shores, as slaves, and if they could produce 
unquestionable evidence that they had such a com- 
mission, as the Jews could, when commanded by 
God to occupy the land of Canaan, we should be 
bound to pay some respect to the claim set up 
by the modern advocates of slavery. But I have 
never yet heard of any slave-pirate or kidnapper, 
who even pretended that he had such a warrant 
or commission from God Almighty, to steal the 
children of Africa, and sell them into bondage I 



32 ORIGIN OP AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

I have, however, heard of one Johnny Hawkins, 
a Sir knight, and a notable person in his day, 
who was the first Englishman who engaged in the 
traffic, and enlisted Queen Elizabeth to protect 
him in the same, and to share in the profits. But 
how did he obtain his right and title? He tells 
his own story. He does not intimate that he had 
any commission from Heaven. He went to an 
African village of eight thousand inhabitants. 
The huts were covered with dry palm leaves, 
very combustible. He set fire to these, which 
were, soon, all in a blaze. In the midst of the 
terror and confusion that ensued, he captured two 
hundred and fifty of the innocent natives, and had 
them conveyed, in chains, on board of his ship. 
This was his first cargo to Hispaniola, from which 
he realized a rich return, in sugar, ginger, and 
pearls. The profits were so immense, that, the 
government of the English nation resolved to en- 
gage in the trade. Bancroft says that the Sover. 
eign of England, " participated in the hazards, the 
profits, and the crimes, and became at once a 
smuggler and a slave merchant." The whole sys- 
tem had its foundation in crime and cupidity. 

The slaveholders in our Southern States, ob- 
tained their right to own and hold these captui'ed 



ORIGIN OP AFRICAN SLAVERY. 33 

Africans, as slaves, from Sir Johnny Hawkins, and 
others, who, like him, stole them from their native 
country. If the original kidnappers had no divine 
right to this species of property, it is a question, 
how those who purchased it from them, have come 
into the possession of such a right. If a thief has 
no valid right or title to the property, stolen by 
him, has the man who buys it of him, knowing it 
to be stolen property, a valid right or title to the 
same ? 

I know that, as late as the year 1860, slaves 
were sold in Texas, Florida, and, perhaps, other 
Southern States, brought by kidnappers in pirate 
ships, direct from Africa, and, that some of these 
advocates for the Divine right of slavery, were 
the purchasers. I am not able to prefer any ac- 
cusation against Dr. Palmer, as having been one 
of the number. But here is a question for him, 
and all of the same school of divinity, to con- 
sider : If the slaves owned by them at present, or 
at the time of Secession, were the children or the 
grand-children of those who were kidnapped in 
Africa, and to whom the kidnappers had no other 
claim than a thief s title, on what foundation do 
they now set up the claim of a Divine right? 
God shall judge these whited sepulchres! They 



34 ORIGIN OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

find their brother guilty of a skin not colored 
like their own, and they claim authority from 
King Jesus, to put a yoke of bondage on his neck, 
an iron chain on his ankle, and to make him their 
slave for life! 



35 



lY. 

EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAYERY. 

We must do justice to the Church of Rome, to 
say, that it has ever and persistently opposed the 
institution of slavery. Soon after the discovery 
of the New World, by Columbus, the Sovereign 
Pontiffs were repeatedly importuned to give their 
sanction, not only to the enslavement of Africans, 
but also, of the aboriginal inhabitants of America. 
But they never yielded to these importunities. 
Even as early as the twelfth century, when Ma- 
hometans enslaved Christians, and Christians, in 
turn, enslaved Mahometans, and slavery was all 
but universal. Pope Alexander III., in the genu- 
ine spirit of Christianity, wrote, in one of his 
bulls, '^JVature having made no Slaves, all men have 
an equal right to Liberty.''^ And after him. Pope 
Leo X. declared that, "710^ the Christian religion 
only, hut nature herself cries out against the state 
of Slavery J' Another Pontiff, Paul III., even went 



36 EAKLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 

SO far, as to imprecate the curse of God, on Euro- 
peans who should enslave Indians, or any other 
class of men. These are facts which ought to be 
borne in mind, especially by slave-holding Catho- 
lics in America. 

The first ship which sailed from New England 
for the coast of Guinea, to trade for negroes, be- 
longed to two men of Boston, whose names were 
Thomas Keyser, and James Smith ; but there was 
such a cry of indignation, raised against them, 
throughout the country, that they were arrested, 
and brought before a civil magistrate, as male- 
factors and murderers. The cargo of Africans, 
was ordered to be sent back to their native 
country, at the public expense, with a letter, ex- 
pressing the indignation of the General Court, at 
their wrongs. 

There was no slavery in Georgia, for years 
after it was first settled, and after it had been 
introduced into the neighboring state of South 
Carolina. It was excluded, during the life-time 
of General Oglethorpe, the first governor, because 
of the earnest and determined opposition of that 
wise and good man. By the third regulation, 
adopted for the government of the colony, under 
his superintendence, slavery was absolutely pro- 



EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 37 

scribed. Oglethorpe himself wrote, " Slavery is 
against the Gospel, as well as against the funda- 
mental law of England. We refused to make a law^ 
'permitting such a horrid crime" 

Many of the settlers earnestly requested, that 
the introduction of negroes might be allowed ; 
and many even prepared to desert the colony, de- 
claring that success was impossible without them. 
Notwithstanding, he sternly rejected their applica- 
tions, saying, that he would have nothing further 
to do with the colony, if negroes should be intro- 
duced into Georgia. There is not a purer and 
more unblemished character, than that of Ogle- 
thorpe, among all those who had any thing to do 
with the settlement of the English colonies in 
America. 

The name which stands highest on the roll of our 
Country's fame, is that of Washington. He has 
been claimed, as among the friends and patrons of 
the Institution of Slavery. It is true, it was his 
lot to have been born in a slave State, and to be 
involved in a connection with the Institution, by 
circumstances over which, perhaps, he had no con- 
trol. His last will and Testament, shows how sin- 
cerely he desired the termination of slavery, in this 
country. In that will, this paragraph is contained, 



38 EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 

"upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and 
desire, that all the slaves whom I hold in my own 
right, shall receive their freedom." The Will pro- 
ceeds to specify, what provision should be made for 
them, both before, and subsequent to the period of 
their manumission; and he further enjoins on hi^ 
executors, to see to it, that this clause, respecting 
his slaves, be religiously fulfilled at the epoch, at 
which it was directed to take place, "without eva- 
sion, neglect or delay." 

If Washington was a defender of the Institution, 
we have only to say it would have been a glorious 
thing for our country, if all the planters in the 
Southern States, had been such defenders and pa- 
trons of slavery, as he was, and had followed his 
bright example. There would have been no divi- 
sion between the North and the South. There 
would have been no civil war. 

It is known that Thomas Jefferson was also a 
slaveholder. But I am not aware that he has ever 
been claimed as an advocate for the Institution. 
He uttered prophetic words, when on one occasion, 
speaking of slavery, he said, "I tremble for my 
country, when I remember that God is just 1 " If it 
was a prediction how fearfully it has been accom- 
plished ! 



EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 39 

Jeflferson penned the immortal document, which 
contains the declaration of our National Independ- 
ence, and, we may suppose, that he expresses his 
own honest convictions, on the subject of slavery, 
in that complaint against the British Government, 
in which he says : " He [the King of England] has 
waged cruel war against human nature, violating 
its most sacred rights of life and liberty, in the per- 
sons of a distant people, who never offended him, 
captivating and carrying them into slavery in an- 
other hemisphere, or to incur a miserable death in 
their transportation thither. This piratical war- 
fare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the war- 
fare of the Christian King of Great Britain, to keep 
open a market where men should be bought and 
sold." 

Jefferson did not profess to be a Christian ; yet, 
if he had written under the influence of Inspiration, 
we know not whether he could have drawn a more 
Yivid picture of the horrors of the slave trade. The 
same eminent statesman, also wrote to the planters 
of the south, saying, that they must emancipate their 
slaves, or " that something worse would follow." 

It is known that he drew up the plan of a consti- 
tution for his native state, providing for the grad- 
ual extinction of slavery, but it was never adopted. 



40 EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 

He was not a Christian, but he was a patriot, and 
he has been called the " Father of the American 
Democracy." He had studied deeply the principles 
of human jurisprudence, and the essential laws of 
right and wrong, and viewing slavery from that 
stand-point alone, he saw and pronounced it a cruel 
warfare against human nature itself, and a viola- 
tion of its most sacred rights. 

I will here, adduce the testimony of another emi- 
nent son of "Virginia, against the institution of 
slavery, viz., John Randolph, of Roanoke. It was 
not the influence of Christianity, which made him 
strike the fetters from the limbs of four hundred 
bondmen, and put them in posession of the sweets 
of liberty. But, he felt himself constrained to this 
act of Justice, by that innate sense of justice, which, I 
believe the Lord of the Universe, has implanted in 
every heart. And though he performed this act of 
justice, only when he was about to leave the world, 
and had deferred, for a time, the doing of so just a 
deed, yet the fact that he had deliberately made up 
his mind to do it at all, and at last carried out the 
intention, tells, more unequivocally than any words 
he could have made use of, in what light he 
viewed slavery. What is the reason the people 
of Virginia have never paid any attention to the 



EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 41 

lesson taught by his example? They feel a just 
pride in the memory of their Washingtons, their 
Jeffersons, their Clays, and their Randolphs ; but 
ah ! they heed not the voice of their words, nor the 
lesson of their example, no more than if they had 
been the most ordinary among men. 

In vain, we search the records of the early his- 
tory of our country, to find the name of one, 
among those who stood high as patriots, philan- 
thropists, or statesmen, who was known, or was 
willing 'to be known, as the champion of slavery. 

The first sentence in that incomparable docu- 
ment, the Declaration of American Independence, 
asserts this great and universal truth, "that God 
created all men free and equal, and endowed them 
with certain inalienable rights, among which are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This 
acknowledged truth, is the main pillar that sup- 
ports, and will support the temple of our Ameri- 
can freedom. It is because we did not understand 
this principle, as our forefathers understood it, 
that discord has reigned, of late, and that glori- 
ous temple has been shaken to its deep founda- 
tions, and well nigh overwhelmed in a mass of 
ruins. 

We thank the authors and fi-amers of that boast- 



42 EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 

ed Constitution, under which we have so long lived 
and flourished, as a nation, for not inserting the 
terms, " slaves^^ and '' Slavery, ^^ in that great magna 
charta of human liberty. In shaping and perfect- 
ing that noble instrument, why did they avoid the 
use of the term. Slavery? Evidently, because the 
thing itself signified by the term, was perceived, 
by them, to be utterly repugnant to the principles 
of a free government. Freedom and slavery are 
antagonistic ideas, and the logical mind, that has 
fully comprehended and embraced the one, must 
reject the other. They had a conscience, and that 
conscience revolted at the thought of taking the 
hideous form of slavery within their embrace, under 
the assumed name of freedom. They had a pre- 
sentiment that the enlightened nations of the 
world would hiss at them, for affecting to lay the 
foundations of the most free and republican gov- 
ernment on earth, and yet, denying to a portion 
of the inhabitants, every natui^al and political right 
of man. And, though they found the evil exist- 
ing, and felt compelled to make concessions in 
favor of those who held men as property, they 
were not willing to let that great charter of a 
nation's rights be marred or deformed by the 
word slavery. And again, we thank them, for 



EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 43 

not permitting any such blot on that paper, which 
they drew up and signed, as the guarantee of all 
our rights and freedom, in all time to come. The 
American Constitution cannot be said to recog- 
nize slavery. The authors of it, cautiously and 
designedly kept the word out ; and, as words are 
the signs of ideas, they kept out, and meant to 
keep out the thing signified by it. 

Still, we are ready to admit, that, for the sake 
of harmony, the framers of that document, did 
enter into a kind of tacit compromisey in favor 
of the accursed institution. And, God in Heaven 
knows, that, if they were living now, they would 
shed bitter, scalding tears, at the recollection of 
the deed. The Almighty himself cancels the deed, 
and the disgrace of it is wiped out in a nation's 
blood ! 



u 



THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 

It has been estimated, that, during the three 
hundred years of the existence of slavery, more 
than forty millions of the children of Africa, have 
been brought, in slave-ships, to the shores of the 
new world, and sold into bondage. This does not 
include the number of those who were murdered 
in the capture, or died in the passage across the 
ocean. It has been said by those who had the 
means of knowing, that the latter number exceeds 
the former. But, supposing the numbers to be 
equal, Africa has lost eighty millions of her peo- 
ple, who have been made an offering on the altar 
of the slave-god. Of these eighty millions, ten 
millions, or one-eighth of the whole, are all that 
remain in existence. To this waste of human life, 
should be added the loss of the natural increase, 
under the rigors of bondage. It is known that 
the race is prolific, and under a mild system. 



THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 45 

founded on the natural principles of humanity, the 
forty millions transported to this country, ought 
to have doubled itself two or three times in the 
course of three centuries. If the laws of in- 
crease, from ordinary generation, had been in no 
wise hindered or checked, by the cruelty of the 
slave system, instead of ten millions, there must 
have been on this continent, at the present mo- 
ment, in round numbers, a population of at least 
one hundred millions of Africans ! It is fair, 
therefore, to put down the one hundred millions, 
as the sacrifice of human life that has been made 
to this infernal system ! Think of this, ye 
christians of the Free States ! who are pleading 
with the Government, and pleading, in your hearts, 
with God Almighty, to spare the system, and who 
are bitterly denouncing the Government, because 
they have interfered with this social and domestic 
institution of their Southern brethren I 

A few years ago, Lord Palmerston in the House 
of Lords, said : 

"According to the report of Messrs. Yender- 
welt and Buxton, from 120,000 to 150,000 slaves 
are landed annually in America. It is calculated, 
that, of three negroes, seized in the interior of 
Africa, to be sent into slavery, but one reaches 



46 THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 

his destination, the two others die in the course 
of the operations of the slave-trade. Whatever 
may be the number transported, we must triple 
it to obtain the true number of human beings, 
whom this detestable traffic kidnaps every year 
from Africa. 

" Indeed, the negroes destined for the slave- 
trade, are not taken from the neighborhood, where 
they are embarked. A great number come from 
the interior. Many are captives, made in wars 
excited by thirst for the gain procured by the 
sale of the prisoners. But the greatest number 
arise from kidnapping expeditions, and an organ- 
ized system of man-stealing, in the interior of 
Africa. When the time approaches to set out 
with the slave caravans for the coast, the kidnap- 
pers surround a peaceful village at midnight, set 
it on fire, and seize on the inhabitants, killing all 
who resist. If the village attacked, is situated 
on a mountain, olGfering greater facilities for flight, 
and the inhabitants take refuge in the caverns, 
the kidnappers kindle large fires at the entrance, 
and those who are sheltered there, placed between 
death by suffocation and slavery, are forced to 
give themselves up. If the fugitive take refuge 
on the heights, the assailants, render themselves 



THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 47 

masters of all the springs and wells, and the un- 
fortunates, devoured by thirst, return to truckle 
their liberty for life. The prisoners made, they 
proceed to the choice. The robust individuals of 
both sexes, and the children from six to seven 
years old, are set aside to form part of the cara- 
van which is to be driven to the sea-shore. They 
rid themselves of the children under six years 
of age, by killing them on the spot, and aban- 
don the aged and infirm, thus condemning them 
to die of hunger. The caravan sets out, men, 
women and children traverse the burning sands, 
and rocky defiles of the mountains of Africa, 
barefoot, and almost naked. The feeble are stim- 
ulated by the whip, the strong are secured by 
chaining them together, or by placing them under 
a yoke. Many fall from exhaustion on the road, 
and die, or become the prey of wild beasts. On 
reaching the sea-shore, they are penned up and 
crowded together in buildings, called barracoons, 
where they fall a prey to epidemics. Death has 
often cruelly thinned their ranks before the arri- 
val of a slave-trader. The first who appears 
takes his choice, setting aside the sick and fee- 
ble, and taking care always to take one-third or, 
at least, one-fourth more than his vessel can hold, 



48 THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 

and this, according to a mathematical calculation, 
for the same reason, that casks are put into a 
vessel loaded with wine, designed to compensate 
for the loss which will result from evaporation, 
or leakage ; for the captain knows perfectly well, 
that a large number of the negroes of his cargo 
will perish, some from grief, others from the change 
of diet, and many from Asphyxia. 

" They do not, always, wait until the dying are 
dead, to cast them into the sea, but sometimes 
throw them overboard, as soon as they are hope- 
less." 

Lord Palmerston then gives an incident of the 
kind which happened in 1738. " A man, named 
Collingwood was carrying slaves to Jamaica ; the 
ship took a wrong course, and water and pro- 
visions became scanty. Knowing, that, if the 
negroes died of famine, the owners would lose 
the insurance on them, while they would be en- 
titled to this premium, if it were proved, that 
he had been compelled, by the perils of the sea, 
to sacrifice the cargo, the captain did not hesi- 
tate to precipitate one hundred and thirty-two 
living beings into the waves." 

The distinguished orator then draws a descrip- 
tion of a negro slave-ship, and quotes the words 



THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 49 

of a man who had seen one of these vessels, "a 
negro has not as much room in them as a corpse 
in a cofi&n.'' 

From all these things, the noble lord draws 
the conclusion, that, if one hundred and fifty 
thousand slaves land annually in America, the 
slave-trade carries away from Africa, three or 
four hundred thousands souls. According to him, 
" all the crimes of the human race, from the crea- 
tion of the world, to our days, do not exceed 
those which have been caused by the slave- 
trade." 

Bancroft, one of the most impartial historians, 
says, of the middle passage: "The horrors of 
the passage, corresponded with the infamy of 
the trade. Small vessels, of little more than 
two hundred tons burden, were prepared for the 
traffic, for these could most easily penetrate the 
bays and rivers of the coast j and quickly ob- 
taining a lading, could soonest hurry away from 
the deadly air of Western Africa. In such a 
bark, five hundred negroes and more have been 
stowed, exciting wonder that men could have 
lived, within the tropics, cribbed in so few 
inches of room. Tlie inequality of force be- 
tween the crew and the cargo led to the use 



50 THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 

of manacles ; the hands of the stronger men, 
were made fast together, and the right leg of 
one was chained to the left of another. The 
avarice of the trader was a partial guarantee 
of the security of life, as far as it depended on 
him ; but death hovered always over the slave 
ship. The negroes, as they came from the higher 
level to the sea-side, poorly fed on the sad pil- 
grimage, sleeping at night on the damp earth, 
without covering, and often reaching the coast at 
unfavorable seasons, imbibed the seeds of disease, 
which confinement on board ship quickened into 
feverish activity. There have been examples 
where one half of them, it has been said, even, 
where two-thirds of them, perished on the pas- 
sage ! " 

The heart is made sick in reading such recitals I 
Can it be that those who claim to be called chris- 
tians, approve and sanction such a trade? which 
Jejfferson did not hesitate to stigmatize as " an 
execrable commerce,^^ " a piratical warfare!'' " the 
opprobrium of infdel powers/^ and " an assemblage 
of horrors^\' Yea, some of the most learned 
divines among our Southern brethren, (!) pre- 
tend to have a celestial warrant to hold their 
colored brethren in chains, to keep open a mar- 



THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 51 

ket for the sale and purchase of slaves, and to 
send the pirate ships annually on their dark way^ 
to rob poor Africa, and obtain more victims ! 

I have never read a complete journal of any 
slave-ship, with her cargo, across the Atlantic. 
It has been said that no such journal has ever 
been published. If such a record had been kept 
and published, in all its details, it would, doubt- 
less, have been a record of instructive interest, 
especially to the friends of the cause of slavery. 

I can imagine that human genius would fail, 
in the attempt to give a just and vivid concep- 
tion of the whole panorama on board of such 
a vessel, during the middle passage. It would 
take a pen, self-endowed with the mysterious and 
magical property of painting life-like pictures. 
Suppose they are heathens or savages, who are 
chained and crammed together in the hold of 
the ship, without sufficient light and air, naked 
and almost suffocated ia the stench of human 
ordure and dead bodies ; they are still human 
beings, endowed with the feelings of humanity. 
They had a country, and they have been torn 
away from that country. They had human aJGfec- 
tions, and they have been rudely separated from 
the embrace of all they loved. They are going 



52 THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 

to be slaves in a country they never saw — their 
hearts are broke! 

Many die from grief, many from suffocation, 
many from disease caused by the noisome atmos- 
phere. They are human beings, and, of neces- 
sity, many must perish. Could feeble humanity 
bear up under such accumulated sufferings, and 
yet survive? They die! the more sensitive and 
nervously constituted, fortunately for them ! Hap- 
py they ! whom the sea opens its friendly bosom 
to receive, and afford them repose from the 
tyranny and cruelty of man! Happy they! who 
die of a broken heart, murdered by men pro- 
fessing to be civilized ! Millions are thus slum- 
bering in their watery beds. The great and 
beneficent Father of all, has their broken hearts 
safe in His keeping. The sea will disclose its 
dead, and those innocent and outraged children 
[of our common Father, will meet the slave- ty- 
rants at the last, face to face! I believe it! 
I am thankful for this christian faith! If there 
is not a hell, there ought to be one I 



53 



VI. 

THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 

At the lowest estimate which can be made, 
this civil war, by the time it shall be ended, 
will have cost the whole country, North and 
South, four thousand millions of money, one mil- 
lion of valuable lives, and a badge of mourning 
hung on nearly half the dwellings in the land. 
These are some of the fruits of the grand rebel- 
lion — and the cause of all is slavery ! 

There are copperhead patriots — thanks to him 
who first suggested a name so appropriate — who 
set themselves up as the apologists of slavery, 
and ascribe the war to the agitations of aboli- 
tionists, and other causes. I would make no 
appeal to their reason. I desire no discussion 
with them. There are none so blind as those 
who will not see. They are traitors at heart, 
less excusable than armed rebels at the South, 
and deserving of a severer punishment. They 



54 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 

are not the friends of the Union. They appre- 
ciate not the blessings of a republican form of 
government. They cannot prize the advantages 
and the benign institutions of civil liberty, for 
the sake of what liberty is, intrinsically, in it- 
self — and let them continue to bow down, and 
demean, as they have done, their pitiful souls, at 
the shrine of a low and contemptible personal 
ambition. The Vallandighams and Seymours of 
the North will get their reward, in the execra- 
tions of their children, in the next generation, 
if not sooner. 

Look at that strutting congressman from South 
Carolina, the land of chivalry, par excellence. 
He thinks he can frighten and awe into submis- 
sive silence, by his blustering and bravado, half 
the numbers from the free States. He grew up 
from childhood with that disposition. The spirit 
began to run in his hot blood very early, and 
was quickened into a wonderful degree of ce- 
lerity, by the training which he received. 

That congressman was a sKve-driver, with a 
whip in his hand, from the time he was four 
years of age. This is the way, and there is no 
mystery about it, that the children of all masters 
become bold and brave, and very chivalrous in- 



THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 65 

deed. You will see young masters on nearly 
every plantation, who, from the time they begin 
to wear trowsers, strut about with whip in hand, 
a terror to all the young darkies on the lordly 
domain. If any should come in his way, crack 
goes the whip, and away go the young negroes, 
panic-stricken, and young master is already a 
young hero. This is the training they receive. 
And why should they not grow up to be knights 
of chivalry of the first order? A man is what 
he is made to be, whether he is made right or 
wrong. We all know the truth of the poetic 
maxim, 

" 'Tis education forms the common mind, 
Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." 

The young scions of chivalry are trained to 
be slave-drivers— and, tyrants by nature, this in- 
nate disposition is strengthened and developed 
by the whole course of training which they re- 
ceive in early life — and how can they depart 
from it, when they are old ? How can they be 
any thing else but tyrants, when they become 
grown men and women? 

I have seen these young shoots of aristocracy 
in the common school, and I have seen them in 



56 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 

colleges at the North and at the South, and 
every teacher has to deplore the fact, that, as 
a class, they lack the spirit of subordination, and, 
with rare exceptions, exhibit a domineering dispo- 
sition, which may be said to be peculiar to the 
.boys of the South. 

There is hardly a faculty of any college in 
the free States, where there are ten or twenty 
young men from the South, who would not testify, 
if called on, that the management and control 
of these ten or twenty sons of chivalry, gives 
them more trouble than all the rest of the stu- 
dents in college. But still, they are the sons of 
wealthy planters, and usually bring a good deal 
of spending money, and they must bear some 
with their freaks and waywardness. 

This is the beginning of that demoralizing in- 
fluence, which slavery has on every mind, that 
comes in contact with it. The children are edu- 
cated and trained up to be tyrants, and the 
effects are visible in every department and sphere 
of life, where they are called to act. In the 
national congress, their members bully and brow- 
beat the members from the free States, and, as 
long as tliey can domineer over them, and con- 
trol the action of congress, they are content to 



THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 67 

stay in the Union. But the very moment they 
are outvoted, and lose the ascendency in the halls 
of congress, they refuse to be any longer subject 
to the Government, and resolve to set up another 
Government, which they can manage or control 
for themselves. In short, wherever a body of 
slave-holders is to be found, they must be the 
ruling power. And it would be just as absurd 
to expect them to submit to the voice of the 
majority in a free Government, when that voice 
is pronounced by the people at large, as to ex- 
pect them to relinquish their mastership over 
their own slaves, and submit to be governed by 
those slaves in turn. 

But the demoralizing effect of slavery on the 
Southern mind, does not terminate here. The 
lordly master looks down, as it were, from an 
eminence, on the laboring classes as a servile and 
inferior population. Labor is, in itself, a badge 
of servility and inferiority. I do most positively 
affirm, after a residence of thirty years in the 
slave-States, that this is the light in which labor 
is regarded. The troops of General Butler had 
not been a week in New Orleans, before it was 
quite common for these young sprigs of aris- 



58 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 

tocracy, male and female, to taunt the Yankee 
soldiers with their "plebeian origin. 

Negroes must work. They were made for 
that. They are fit for nothing else. They are 
an inferior race. This is the mode in which 
masters reason, and the inference is unavoida- 
ble — labor is a sign of degradation. 

The son of a slave-holder does not labor, and 
he would think himself degraded indeed, if he 
were reduced to the necessity of having to work 
for his living. 

The son of a planter might be an overseer, or 
a negro-driver, and he would not be degraded ; 
but if he should learn a mechanical trade, and 
should work at that trade to earn a livelihood, 
he would be inevitably excluded from the upper 
class of society. They occupy a position so pre- 
eminently exalted above that of the slaves, that 
they cannot consent to be placed, in any sense, 
on a level with them. But to do, from necessity, 
the work of common laborers, is to put them- 
selves in a condition so similar to that of the 
slaves, that they look on it as a state of degra- 
dation. 

To give a clear and just conception of the pre- 
vailing sentiment, at the South, on this subject, I 



THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 69 

deem it expedient to quote a few sentences from 
several of their standard authors. Chancellor 
Harper says : 

" In our own country, look at the lower valley 
of the Mississippi, which is capable of being 
made a far greater Egypt. In our own state, 
there are extensive tracts of the most fertile 
soil, which are capable of being made to swarm 
with life. These are, at present, pestilential 
swamps, and valueless, because there is abun- 
dance of other soil in more favorable situations, 
which demand all, and more than all the labor 
which our country can supply. Are these re- 
gions of fertility to be abandoned at once, and 
forever, to the alligator and tortoise — with here 
and there perhaps, a miserable, shivering, crouch- 
ing, free black savage? Does not the finger of 
Heaven itself point to a race of men, not to be 
enslaved by us, but already enslaved, and who 
will be in every way benefitted by the change 
of masters — to whom such climate is not uncon- 
genial, who, though disposed to indolence, are yet 
patient, and capable of labor, on whose whole 
features, mind and character, nature has indel- 
ibly written — slave — and indicate that we should 
avail ourselves of these, in fulfilling the first 



60 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 

great command to subdue and replenish the 
earth." 

The last line in the above paragraph is an at- 
tempt to quote scripture, but it is both misquoted 
and misapplied. The sentence pronounced on 
man, was, "In the sweat of thy face, shalt thou 
eat bread till thou return unto the ground ; for 
out of it wast thou taken ; for dust thou art, and 
unto dust shalt thou return. Therefore the Lord 
God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to 
till the ground from whence he was taken." 

Now, whom did the Lord send forth, to till the 
ground? Was it the slave, or was it the slave's 
master? Inspiration teaches that it was the man. 
Who is meant by the man? The advocates of 
slavery are scarcely willing to admit that the 
slave is a man. We ought therefore to conclude 
that it was the slave's master who was doomed, 
when driven from paradise, to eat his bread in 
the sweat of his face. 

Chancellor Harper would have expressed his 
meaning better, if he had said that the first 
great command was to subdue and enslave a 
portion of Adam's children, that we miglit avail 
ourselves of their labor, to subdue and replenish 
the swampy districts abandoned to the alligator 



THE LAST CRIME OP SLAVERY. 61 

and tortoise. Thus the slave would fulfil the 
curse, but the master would escape it. Was this 
the intention of Infinite AVisdom, when the sen- 
tence was uttered? If so, what fate, may we 
infer, was in reserve for the master? Let us 
hear what the same writer says on this point: 

*'The agriculturist or tiller of the soil, who 
can command no labor but that of his own 
hands, or that of his family, must remain com- 
paratively poor and rude. He who acquires 
wealth by the labor of slaves, has the means of 
improvement for himself and his children. He 
may have a more extended intercourse, and, con- 
sequently, means of information and refinement^ 
and may seek education for his children, where 
it may be found." 

Now let us look at the plain, unvarnished 
meaning of this brief passage. The slave-holder 
is not to labor — not to till the ground with his 
own hands. He is to acquire his wealth by the 
labor of slaves — that he may have the means of 
improvement for himself and children — that he 
may have the means of information and refine- 
ment — and may be able to educate his children 
in the schools of Eui'ope, or wherever education 
may be found. This was to be the employment 



62 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 

of the master and his children — not to toil — not 
to earn his bread in the sweat of his face ! But 
here is a passage still more explicit, from tho 
same distinguished writer. 

"It is by the existence of slavery, exempting 
so large a portion of our citizens from the ne- 
cessity of bodily labor, that we have a greater 
proportion than any other people, who have leisure 
for intellectual pursuits, and the means of obtain- 
ing a liberal education." Aye, they were exempt- 
ed from the necessity of bodily labor, but it was 
done in contravention of the fiat of the Al- 
mighty. 

Again, the same author observes — "It is bet- 
ter that a part should be fully and highly cul- 
tivated, and the rest utterly ignorant.'''' It is diffi- 
cult to imagine that even one of South Carolina's 
most gifted sons, should ever have penned such 
a sentence. But here is still another choice par- 
agraph from the same pen. 

"We must avail ourselves of such labor as 
we can command. The slave must labor, and is 
inured to it ; while the necessity of energy in 
his government, of watchfulness, and of prepara- 
tion and power to suppress insurrection, added 
to the moral force derived from the habit of com- 



THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 63 

mand, may help to prevent the degeneracy of the 
master." 

What a lofty mission is assigned to the mas- 
ter I It is his to watch the slave— to be ever 
ready to suppress insurrections. And he must ac- 
quire the habit of command^ and, therefore, he can- 
not degenerate for want of employment. What 
a noble mission is his! He can well afford to 
look down from his high position, on the com- 
mon herd of drivelling laborers, and tillers of the 
gi'ound. 

Governor Hammond, of the same illustrious State, 
says ; " It is impossible to suppose that slavery is 
contrary to the will of God." "I think, then, 
I may safely conclude, and I firmly believe that 
American slavery is not only not a sin, but es- 
pecially commanded by God, through Moses, and 
approved by Christ, through His apostles." "I 
endorse, without reserve, that much-abused senti- 
ment of Governor McDuf&e, that slavery is the 
corner-stone of our republican edifice, while I re- 
pudiate, as ridiculously absurd, that much-lauded, 
but nowhere accredited, dogma of Mr. Jefferson, 
that " all men are born equal." And here is what 
the same distinguished orator says about the la- 
boring classes in free countries : 



64 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 

"I affirm, that, in Great Britain, the poor and 
laboring classes of your race and color, not only 
your fellow beings, but your fellow citizens, are 
more miserable and degraded, morally and physi- 
cally, than our slaves ; to be elevated to the 
actul condition of whom, would be, to these, your 
fellow citizens, a most glorious act of emancipa- 
tion/' 

By this, he intended to say, that, if these la- 
boring classes of Britain, could be sold to South- 
ern slave-holders, and compelled to labor, under 
task-masters, like Southern slaves, their condition, 
moral and physical, would be so greatly improved, 
that it would be, as it were, a most glorious act 
of emancipation to them. He then asserts that 
the poor and laboring classes in the Northern 
Free States, are in a condition but a little more 
enviable than that of the laboring classes of Eng- 
land — that is, according to this authority, they are 
in a condition more miserable and degraded, phy- 
sically and morally, than their African slaves. 

We see, from these brief quotations, in what es- 
timation, labor and an honest laboring population 
are held, and have been held, by these lordly and 
insolent nabobs of the South. Can it be said 
that slavery has not perverted their intellect, and 



THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 65 

blinded their eyes ? Was there ever a more strik- 
ing verification of the old heathen philosopher's 
saying, " Whom the Lord intends to destroy, he 
first deprives of reason." 

Once more, the baneful and corrupting influence 
of slavery on the mind and soul of man, is seen 
in the intense and almost fiendish hatred which 
it engendered, in the Southern heart, against the 
entire population of the North. I can say, that 
hatred exceeded in virulence and malignity, any 
thing I have ever known. The war was the un- 
avoidable result. It was impossible that any peo- 
ple so thoroughly alienated from another, and ani- 
mated by such a phrenzy of madness against them, 
should continue to live under the same government 
with them. 

Two hundred men, according to the testimony 
of the Hon. A. J. Hamilton, were hung in the 
State of Texas alone, during the year 1860, for 
no other crime than that of having been born at 
the North. This was some months before the 
State had seceded, and before it was known there 
would be war. 

The writer of these pages, would state, that, 
during the same year, while traveling in the 
same State about sixty miles from the place of 



66 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVEBY. 

his residence, lie was seized by a mob and would 
undoubtedly have been hung, had he not been 
able to procure certificates from some of the 
most influential men in the State, that he had 
resided thirty years in the South, and that he 
had never been known to be an abolitionist. I 
must here say, that, up to the moment of the 
bombardment of Fort Sumter, I had always been 
a conservative, and always conscientiously op- 
posed to the agitation of slavery by the abo- 
litionists. Gov. Hammond, in his work, " Sla- 
very in the light of Political Science ," said ; " the 
only thing that can create a mob here, (as you 
might call it) is the appearance of an abolition- 
ist, whom the people assemble to chastise ; and 
this is no more of a mob, than a rally of shep- 
herds to chase a wolf out of their pastui-es would 
be one." 

Thus, we see that the people of the South had 
arrayed themselves against universal mankind. 
They bade defiance to the opinion of the civil- 
ized world. In their judgment, there was but 
one institution — slavery. That was the ultimatum 
of human hope and desire. And to that, every 
otlier institution and interest must succumb — 
Hear the same writer again : " you are stirring 



THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 67 

up mankind to overthrow our Heaven-ordained 
S3'stem of servitude, surrounded by innumerable 
checks, designed and planted deep in the human 
heart by God and nature, to substitute the abso- 
lute rule of this spirit reprobate, whose proper 
place was hell." " Come what may, we are firmly 
resolved that our system of domestic slavery shall 
stand." 

The eloquent Dr. Palmer, of New Orleans, just 
before the State seceded, preached a discourse, 
afterward published in pamphlet form, in which he 
elaborated the proposition, that God had raised 
up the Southern people to conserve and perpetu- 
ate the institution of slavery ; and on this ground 
he urged and advised secession. 

0, there is no more melancholy spectacle, than 
to see a nation or an individual, thus poised on a 
giddy eminence, on their own narrow pedestal, and 
setting at defiance, the friendly warnings and the 
advice of the whole christian world ! It is, and 
must ever be the sure precursor of a terrible and 
sudden overthrow. Where is Dr. Palmer now? 
Poising and trembling over the very abyss of 
atheism ! He was known to declare publicly, be- 
fore he fled from the presence of tke Yankee 
troops in New Orleans, that, if the Almighty 



68 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 

should favor the cause of the Yankees, he should 
lose his confidence in him as a God of truth and 
justice ! We cannot avoid the conclusion, that 
blindness of mind as well as a judicial hardness 
of heart, hath taken possession of the people of 
the South. 

They were fully prepared to perpetrate the 
crime of treason. Slavery had schooled and pre- 
pared all their faculties of mind and soul for it, 
and all they awaited was a fitting occasion. This 
occurred on the announcement of the election of 
President Lincoln, the first President ever elect- 
ed without the Southern vote. They even prac- 
tised fraud and treachery to secure the election 
of Mr. Lincoln, that they might be furnished an 
opportunity for dissolving the Union. Their lead- 
ing politicians knew, that, if Mr. Douglass were 
the nominee of the Charleston Convention, he 
would in all probability be elected, in which 
event, the Slave States, generally, would not fol- 
low South Carolina, in an attempt to dissolve the 
Union. Therefore, they determined to prevent 
the nomination of Douglass, so as to secure tlie 
election of Lincoln. I think that every intelli- 
gent man in the country, must know this state- 



THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 69 

ment to be correct. But I will here introduce 
one fact in evidence. 

In the State Convention of Alabama, which 
met in Montgomery, to choose delegates to the 
Charleston Convention, an exciting debate arose, 
on the resolutions of instruction introduced, for 
the guidance of those delegates, when they should 
take their seats in that Convention. By those 
resolutions, they were required to vote for a 
clause in the Democratic platform to be adopted, 
permitting every slave-holder to carry his slave- 
property to any part of the vacant territory of 
the United States, where he might choose to set- 
tle. Judge Hitchcock, of Mobile, one of the 
members of the Convention, arose in his place, 
and protested earnestly against the adoption of 
such a resolution. He told them, it was asking 
too much of their Northern Democratic friends, 
to require them to vote for carrying slavery into 
all the vacant territory of the United States, and 
more than the Northern Democracy were pre- 
pared to concede. He warned them, that, to in- 
sist on inserting such a clause in their platform, 
would lead to a rupture in the Convention, and 
probably to a dissolution of the Union. And, in 
closing his remarks, he told his fi'iends, the mem- 



70 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 

bers of that Montgomery Convention, that they 
were on the verge of a precipice, and exliorted 
them to pause and consider, before they leaped, 
madly and blindly, into the abyss yawning before 
them. 

They paid no attention to the words of warn- 
ing which he uttered. William L. Yancey sprang 
to his feet, and exclaimed that he did not wish 
any gentleman to be deceived — that as for him- 
self, he wanted it distinctly understood, that he 
was for a dissolution of the Union, " with or with- 
out causeJ' 

The resolutions of instruction were passed 
almost unanimously, there being but six votes 
against them, including that of Judge Hitchcock. 
The honorable gentleman was afterwards a refu- 
gee from his state for opinion's sake, and is now 
a presiding Judge in one of the Courts of New 
Orleans. Thus all things were made ready. 

We come now to the final act in the drama. The 
lightning courier has carried the news throughout 
the length and breadth of the land, that Mr. Lin- 
coln has been, duly and constitutionally, elected 
President for the next term of four years. What 
anathemas dire are poured forth from the press, 
and in every crowd and private circle throughout 



THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 71 

the Southern States I as if the cursing demon had 
been let loose from pandemonium I Liberal bets 
are offered that he would never be inaugurated. 
Threats are made that he never should be! The 
flag of the country is dishonored. It is hauled 
down from the towers and domes, in many a town 
and city, where it had ever proudly floated in the 
favoring breezes of heaven. That noble flag, the 
star spangled banner is trailed in the dust, by the 
maddened populace! 

What terrible national calamity has wrought 
their passions to such a pitch of fury? What 
crime had Mr. Lincoln ever committed, or what 
Southern right had he ever assailed, or even 
threatened to assail? Not one. A man of un- 
blemished reputation, he stands, and has ever stood 
by the constitution of his country, pledged by 
previous promises, and those promises renewed, 
and reaffirmed in the oath of office when he was 
inaugurated, sacredly to observe all the provisions 
of that constitution, and to guard and protect all 
the interests of the South, as all his predecessors 
had done. Why then did they secede ? Why did 
they frantically disrupt the bonds of the best 
government ever enjoyed by man ? Why did they 
venture to hurl themselves on the perils of a most 



72 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 

bloody and fratricidal war? Can they assign any 
plausible reason? Let one of their own most dis- 
tinguished statesmen answer. 

" Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment, 
what reasons you can give to your fellow sufferers, 
in the calamity that it will bring upon us. What 
reasons can you give to the nations of the earth, 
to justify it ? They will be the calm and deliber- 
ate judges in the case, and to what cause, or om 
overt act can you name or point, on which to rest 
the plea of justification? What right has the 
North assailed? What interest of the South has 
been invaded? What justice has been denied, 
and what claim founded in justice and right, has 
been withheld? Can either of you, to-day, name 
one governmental act of wrong, deliberately and 
purposely done by the Government of Washing- 
ton, of which the South has a right to complain ? 
I challenge the answer! Now, for you to at- 
tempt to overthrow such a government as this, 
under which we have lived for more than three- 
quarters of a century — in which we have gained 
our wealth, our standing as a nation, our domes- 
tic safety, while the elements of peril are around 
us, with peace and tranquillity, accompanied with 
unbounded prosperity, and rights unassailcd — is 



THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 73 

tlie height of madness, folly, and wickedness, to 
which I can neither lend my sanction nor my 
vote." 

The questions of Mr. Stephens have never been 
answered — they cannot be I Nevertheless, the 
work of demolition is begun. The temple of a 
world's freedom, reared three-quarters of a cen- 
tury ago, must be destroyed. It is nothing that 
George Washington laid the corner-stone in the 
glorious structure, it must be razed to the dust ! 

They begin to muster the hosts of their chival- 
ric Southern legions. The din and clangor of re- 
sounding arms begins to be heard, and warlike 
movements and preparations are seen on every 
hand. They have counted the cost, and the die 
is cast. They seize upon forts, arsenals, revenue 
cutters, and other property belonging to the Gov- 
ernment at Washington. They take possession of 
custom houses, mints, and government funds, in- 
tended for the pay of the soldiers who had been 
employed to defend their own frontiers, from the 
depredations of hostile Indians. And the traitor, 
Twiggs, even endeavored to force these faithful 
soldiers into the service of the rebels. 

Slowly, the government functionaries begin to 
wake up, and to take measures to defend the 



74 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 

citadel of liberty. But they had slumbered a 
little too long. The torch of the incendiaries 
had already been applied. The flames were al- 
ready kindled — and the mighty conflagration is 
not yet extinguished! 

When we review the whole matter, we are over- 
whelmed with amazement, and penetrated with 
the deepest sorrow, to know that there should be 
found concentrated so many of the elements of 
depravity, and in such strength, in the hearts of 
a whole people. They will never be able, here- 
after, to assign to their consciences, or to their 
children, a single satisfactory reason, for this mad 
rebellion, against the legitimate and ordained gov- 
ernments of Heaven and earth. They cannot 
plead, that it was because their institutions were 
insecure, or were threatened. The earnest and 
eloquent voice of their own Stephens, would be a 
refutation of any such plea. 

Long ago, the great statesmen, John Q. Adams, 
conjured them to adhere to the Union, as the 
only means of maintaining their cherished insti- 
tution of slavery. The compromise ingrafted on 
the constitution, unfortunately for the whole coun- 
try, was their guarantee of safety, as to that in- 
stitution. The national congress never would, 



THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 75 

never could have interfered with slavery in the 
States where it exists, so long as that constitu- 
tion remains unchanged. And there was not the 
slightest probability of any such change being 
made, at least for half a century to come. 

The rebels knew, moreover, that even should 
they succeed, as they had little reason to expect, 
in effecting a permanent dissolution of the Union, 
and establishing their separate independence, their 
slave property could not be half so secure, as 
under the old Union — that all fugitive slave laws 
would be repealed, and that there would be a 
Canada frontier erected on every side of them. 

What, then, did they hope for — what could they 
have hoped for, from a change ? They were spell- 
bound ! They were under the influence of an awful 
delusion ! We must believe that the vengeance of 
a justly offended Deity was suspended over them, 
which made it necessary that the accumulated 
crimes of slavery, should be expiated in their 
blood ! The time, decreed in the secret purpose 
of God, had come, and the bitter cup which they 
had prepared for their own lips, they must drink ; 
aye, to the lowest dregs I 



76 



VII. 
THE EXPIATION. 

There is an established connection between sin 
and suffering. I believe it is a necessary and 
universal law, ordained by God Himself. This 
nation has been severely judged. The judgment 
has been brought on us directly by slavery, and, 
therefore, they stand related, the one to the other, 
as cause and effect. By this rule, we may determine 
in what light the system of slavery is regarded by 
the Supreme Being. Let us contemplate and fairly 
comprehend this important and fixed law of His 
Providence. 

We believe that nations, as well as individuals, 
are punished for their crimes. And we believe, 
further, that they are not punished, except for 
crimes committed against His law. And if we 
believe this, we cannot be in doubt, as to what is 
the Divine verdict in reference to slavery. 

All men, and all nations, wliich are not atheists, 



THE EXPIATION. 77 

act with implicit confidence in the truth of the 
belief, just stated. It has been the practice of 
nations, from time immemm*ial, in seasons of gen- 
eral calamity, and under the reverses of war, to 
humble themselves for supposed national sins, and 
to appeal to their deities, to avert from them the 
calamities, actual or threatened. Would this be 
the case, universally, amongst heathen as well as 
Christian nations, if there were not, in the minds 
of all, a general belief that there is a connection 
between the judgments with which nations are 
visited, and the sins for which they are thus vis- 
ited, in the Divine displeasure ? Ye, who profess 
to be civilized and Christian freemen, how long 
will ye ignore this universal belief, and this knowl- 
edge of the laws of the Divine Providence, accord- 
ing to which he deals with nations, and blesses 
them, or curses them, in the just ratio of their 
deserts I 

We know that the system of domestic slavery 
in the South, brought this war upon the country. 
Have we yet learned to regard the war in the 
light of a national punishment, inflicted on the na- 
tion for the crime of slavery? Has there ever 
been a day appointed for national humiliation, 
fasting and prayer, on account of this sin ? Never I 



78 THE EXPIATION. 

Has an order ever gone forth to the army to abolish 
slavery in the conquered districts, on the ground 
of the moral turpitude and sin of the system? 
Never ! Has the nation, as such, ever repented, 
or even professed the necessity of repentance for 
this gigantic national crime ? Never ! 

Many of the politicians at the North, even some 
of their hypocritical preachers, and a large por- 
tion of the citizens in all the States, are still dis- 
posed to be the apologists of this masterpiece of 
hell's workmanship, and would gladly take back 
their Southern brethren into their loving em- 
brace, with this darling sin still clinging to them, 
if the Lord would permit them. 

The judgments may be expected to continue till 
the nation is humbled, and repents of that great 
crime for which it is punished. They, therefore, 
who put themselves forward as apologists for the 
sin, are the real enemies of the country, and are 
standing in the w^ay, between us and pardon, and 
reconciliation with the offended Deity. We shall 
never have peace, till slavery is abolished. The 
Lord is chastising us as a people for this sin, and 
we cannot repent of the evil, without putting it 
away. 

We shall see, that, if anything is accomplished 



THE EXPIATION. 79 

by this war, it will be the destruction of slavery. 
The nation will be corrected — the country will be 
purged — and we do not expect to sec the termin- 
ation of this war, till that great end, for which 
the war was sent, is accomplished. If we had 
understood this at the beginning, the war could 
have been terminated in six months. If the proc- 
lamation of emancipation had gone forth at the 
very commencement, and if the commanding gene- 
rals of the army had been permitted to muster 
the enslaved into the army, to assist in the cause 
of emancipation, the South could never have or- 
ganized a powerful army at all. The sons of 
chivalry would have been kept at home, to defend 
their own hearth-stones from domestic insurrec- 
tion. The Southern people have always stood in 
dread of their slaves. It was their weak point. 
But the North seemed entirely to ignore the fact, 
and the Government refused to aim a decisive 
blow against that weak-point. They resolved, at 
first, to crush the rebellion, and yet spare the pe- 
culiar institution. They tried the experiment, but 
made a failure. They had yet to learn that they 
had grappled with a monster. 

The first call was for seventy-five thousand 
men. The second call was for an army of half 



80 THE EXPIATION. 

a million. They saw the flower of this array 
swept away. A thousand millions of treasure 
had been expended, and the Government saw 
they were no nearer the accomplishment of their 
object than when they began. At last, from very 
necessity, they adopted the policy of emancipation, 
compelled thereto by an overruling Providence! 

Now, who has stood in the way of victory? 
Is it the Government, or is it the people? 

Suppose the proclamation of freedom had come 
out at the very beginning of the war, what a 
storm of indignation would have been raised by 
the Northern people against the President! They 
did not desire the overthrow of slavery. — They 
were not prepared for the measure — and the 
Government dared not to move too fast. But I 
ween that by the time the nation has bled 
enough, they will have become quite orthodox on 
the question of slavery. 

I think I have shown, with sufiScient clear- 
ness, that this war was caused by slavery — that 
it is the fruit of slavery. We ought to be able 
to judge of a tree by its fruit. But more on 
this point anon. 

History teaches us that nations are punished 
for their sins. A profound Christian faith con- 



THE EXPIATION. 81 

vinces us, that no nation can violate the laws 
of Heaven and of eternal justice, with impunity. 
I need not cite examples from history, for I 
should have to instance all the nations, whose 
history is known, which have been scourged ; 
which have been desolated by fire and sword; 
which have been brought to the verge of ex- 
termination, time and again ; and show that in 
every case, it was because of their national wick- 
edness in the sight of Heaven, and their disre- 
gard of the rights of justice and humanity. 

The connection between national crime and 
national calamity, is better traced in the history 
of the Jewish nation, than any other, because 
the pen of Inspiration has pointed out the con- 
nection. But we may not suppose that other 
nations, offending against the laws of the uni- 
verse, have been dealt with, by a different rule. 
If some inspired pen had been provided to write 
the tragical history of the nations that have 
passed away, or that are existing still, in a lan- 
guishing and broken condition, pointing out, in 
every case, the causes of the desolation of one ; 
the convulsion of another: the severing into frag- 
ments of a third; the utter blotting out of a 
fourth, etc., as the inspired writers have done in 



82 THE EXPIATION. 

the case of the Jewish nation, we should be in 
possession, for our guidance, of an ever present 
mentor, to whose voice, if we were indifferent 
and inattentive, we should deserve to forfeit our 
national prestige and glory, and even to have our 
name blotted out. 

But, as a nation, professing to be Christian, it 
is enough for us to know that war is the red 
hand of the Almighty, with which he punishes 
and scourges the nations for their iniquities. And 
we ought to know that we are now suffering 
the vengeance of Heaven, on account of slavery. 
This can be made evident by several considera- 
tions : 

1. Slavery was the cause of the war. This was 
the point insisted on in the preceding chapter. 
It is no louger a debateable question. We sup- 
pose that there is no well informed person in the 
land, who would deny the fact. Slavery was the 
original and primary cause of the war. If then 
there had been no slavery, there had been no 
war. For the cause ceasing to exist, the effect 
ceases, of course. 

But slavery exists, and it has produced the war. 
It is the most fearful calamity that has ever 
fallen on the nation. It has clothed the land in 



THE EXPIATION. 83 

mourning. It flouts on its blood stained banners, 
unmistakable signs of God's anger against us as 
a people. The crimson tide of life, from sons and 
brothers, has moistened many fertile plains and 
valleys. We are threatened with the loss of oui- 
nationality, and our national glory — all, all be- 
cause of slavery ! Can it be that so much of evil 
and suffering to a whole people, should have its 
origin directly and solely in a cause, in itself, just, 
holy and good? Would this be in accordance 
with the principles of the Divine Government? 
To maintain the afi^rmative would be impious. 
The character of the effect, shows the character 
of the cause. And by this rule, slavery is con- 
demned. By the same rule, we learn what is the 
verdict of the great monarch of the universe con- 
cerning it. 

2. The final and only important result of this 
war, will be the destruction of slavery. If the 
nation is successful in the struggle to maintain its 
very existence, this end will be inevitably attained, 
although not originally intended or designed, by 
either of the contending parties. The cherished 
institution of the South will be blotted out. Can 
we think of any other important and radical 
change, that will be made in our constitution and 



84 THE EXPIATION. 

our government, but this ? All our other civil and 
religious institutions, founded in wisdom and piety, 
will remain to us unimpaired. Commerce and 
trade, and all the arts of a great and Christian 
people, will receive a new impetus, and flourish 
as formerly. Our free schools, a free church, and 
a free press will be continued, still to bless and 
enlighten the millions of freemen, who shall be 
raised up to inhabit this goodly land'. The na- 
tion, by its recuperative, self-inherent energies, will 
soon recover from the ejffects of the mighty shock, 
and settle down again on its former basis of un- 
exampled prosperity. There will be no visible 
change. But slavery will have passed away. 
And there may be an alteration in the constitu- 
tion adapted to this new state of things. Can we 
discern nothing in this, indicative of the will and 
intentions of that overruling Providence that con- 
trols all events ? Or can we suppose that the 
God of this nation will not do all his pleasure ? 
3. The evils of this war, viewed in the light 
of a national punishment, fall heaviest on those 
guilty of the sin of slavery. This is another mani- 
fest indication, as to what is the Divine intention 
concerning it. Where punishment is inflicted, jus- 
tice requires that it fall on the guilty. 



THE EXPIATION. * 85 

In the first place, the theatre of war has been 
mainly in the Slave States. It is their fields 
which have been desolated, and drenched in blood. 
It is there, where the poor slave has so long 
clanked his chains, that the once rich and cul- 
tivated tracts have been devastated ; that towns 
and villages have been sacked and burned ; that 
thousands of once happy homes have been forsaken, 
and tens of thousands of delicate wives and daugh- 
ters of planters, have been reduced to a state of 
starvation, and of the utmost destitution, by the 
accidents of war. 

Again, we may safely estimate, that the sacrifice 
of human life, will amount, by the time the war 
is closed, in round numbers, to one million of 
men, divided about equally, between the North 
and the South, who have fallen in the field, or 
by diseases caused by exposure and privation in 
the service. It is known that many entire regi- 
ments, in the rebel army, were reduced to one-half 
their original number, before the end of the first 
winter campaign. This is a fearful waste of human 
life. The loss of half a million, out of a popula- 
tion of seven million white inhabitants, would be 
fully one-half of their able-bodied fighting men ; 
whereas, the same number deducted from the twen- 



86 THE EXPIATION. 

ty-one millions of the Northern States, would be 
equal to but one in six, who have fallen victims 
to the war. How unequally has the punishment 
fallen ! The Slave States have lost half their men, 
who were able to bear arms ; the Free States 
have lost one-sixth part. There is a Providence 
in it, to whose voice we may not turn a deaf ear, 
if we would. 

In the third place, the fortunes of the Southern 
people have been swept away, as chaff blown by 
the wind ; while the people of the Free States, 
with few exceptions, have been as prosperous 
and thriving, as at any former period in the his- 
tory of the country. It is melancholy to ,con- 
template the change which a few brief months 
have wrought in the condition of the whole South, 
and its inhabitants. 

Many, who, a short time ago, were millionaires, 
will be made beggars. The exactions of Jeff. 
Davis, to carry on the war, and maintain his au- 
thority, have already stripped the most of them 
bare. Their wives and daughters, Avho had been 
accustomed to ride in elegant carriages, and flaunt 
their silks and jewelry, are reduced to rags. In 
many cases, their children, the offspring of aris- 
tocracy, cry for bread, to appease their hunger. It 



THE EXPIATION. 87 

is known that the armies at Vicksburg, and- at 
Port Hudson, for some days before they surren- 
dered, had no meat but mules' flesh ; and that the 
latter army, under General Gardiner, did not sur- 
render till they had eat the last mule. 

Now, if we suppose that there is a Providence 
in all this, how terrible is the doom that has fallen 
on the heads of the slave-holders ! At the close 
of the war, they will find that their slave prop- 
erty, on account of which they made the war, 
is gone. The little remnant of their property, 
which Jeff. Davis had not extorted from them, 
will be confiscated on account of their treason. 
Their families, who had never labored, and had 
been brought up to despise labor, will be in a 
condition utterly destitute and helpless. I can 
think of no other instance of the Divine displeas- 
ure, which affords any analogy to this, but that 
of the ancient Egyptians, whose first-born were 
slain by the destroying angel ; whose cattle were 
destroyed by the plagues ; whose army was over- 
whelmed in the Red Sea, on account of the sin 
of oppression. 

In the last place, perhaps, the bitterest ingre- 
dient in the cup of retribution, hereafter, will be 
the reflection, "we brought the ruin on ourselves!'' 



88 THE EXPIATION. 

I believe that the madness of the hour will 
pass away. I believe that reason will again ex- 
ercise her wonted sway, when there will come a 
bitter, but unavailing repentance. Then they will 
recall to their recollections, the advice and faith- 
ful warnino-s of their Alexander H. Stephens, 
their Crittenden, their A. J. Hamilton, and even 
their Sam Houston, and a few other wise states- 
men, who truly and clearly pointed out, what 
would be the consequences of their rebellion. 
They will be compelled to remember how pros- 
perous and happy they had always, been, under 
the old government — that no rights of theirs had 
ever been invaded by that government — that the 
old constitution had always protected them in 
the possession of their slave-property, and would 
still have afforded them protection, if they had 
not madly and wickedly chosen to put themselves 
forever beyond that protection. If any of them 
go into exile in other lands hereafter, these will 
be their reflections— that they had a country 
whose flag was honored in every land ; that they 
had wealth and friends ; that they were prosper- 
ous and happy ; that they had not known what 
oppression was. And will not such thoughts as 
these, be intensified even to agony, when they 



THE EXPIATION. 89 

shall see that well known flag at the mast head 
of American vessels, in the ports of the different 
countries, where they may be exiles, still honored 
and respected, by all men, as the symbol of free- 
dom? How fearful, but just are the retributions 
of thy Providence, to the wicked, God ! 

But why should the innocent suffer with the 
guilty ? For it cannot be denied that the inhabi- 
tants of the States in which slavery did not exist, 
have already suffered, and must still suffer from 
this war. Why are they made to share in the 
punishment due to the sins of others? The an- 
swer is, the nation is responsible for the exist- 
ence of the system of slavery, and the expiation 
of the guilt thereof, is justly required from the 
whole nation. 

It is true, the body of the people in the North- 
ern States, years ago, saw and deplored the evils 
of the system, and emancipated all their own 
slaves. So far, they did well. But still, the 
institution of slavery at the South, with all its 
peculiarities and enormities, has grown up and 
flourished under the auspices and shadow of the 
great American tree of liberty. A recognition of 
the system was engrafted upon the Constitution, 
and it has been recognized and protected by the 



90 THE EXPIATION. 

American Congress. Therefore, it may be said 
that the Sovereign Ruler of nations, justly holds 
our Government responsible for the existence of 
the evil. Who, then, shall complain, that the na- 
tion feels the rod of chastisement, lifted for the 
correction of the whole people. 

Not only was the Government a guilty party, 
in entering into a compromise or treaty, recog- 
nizing the system, and incorporating it into the 
body politic, but the entire people of the North, 
have liberally patronized and encouraged the in- 
stitution, in purchasing cotton and sugar, the pro- 
ducts of slave-labor. These articles, it may be 
affirmed, were the sweat and blood of African 
slaves, extracted from them by the lash of task^ 
masters, who were utterly destitute of the feeling 
of humanity! And yet the Christian people of 
the North, and the people of England, protesting 
all the while against the barbarities of the sys- 
tem, would purchase these articles. 

Let England continue, hypocritically, to protest 
against slavery, the world knows that her im- 
mense commerce and trade, is, in great part, main- 
tained by the toil of slaves. She is the most 
liberal patron of the system, and, if she dared, she 
would, to day, recognize the Southern Confederacy, 



THE EXPIATION. 91 

and aid in laying the foundations of a slave-ro- 
public, for the sake of a monopoly of the trade 
of that republic. England, tremble in view of 
the fate that surely awaits thee ! God is just, and 
there are many sins laid to thy charge, yet una- 
toned for ! 

I have endeavored to ascertain the purpose of 
the Divine will, so far as that purpose can be 
known by the dispensations of his Providence in 
the present war; and, according to my honest 
convictions, there seems to be but one conclusion 
to which every good man and christian must come, 
viz : that it was intended as a righteous and just 
judgment for the sin of slavery. 

If I am wrong in this conclusion, I would des- 
pair of ever being able to read aright any lesson, 
taught by the dispensations of the Divine Provi- 
dence, in the management of human affairs. 

If I am right in the conclusion to which I have 
arrived, what is our duty, as a people? Mani- 
festly, it is to confess and repent of this sin, as a 
nation ! We have not yet done this. It is true, 
that days for fasting and humiliation have been 
appointed. But this has been, pro forma, and 
from custom, rather than from any deep conviction 
of the great guilt of that peculiar system of ini- 



92 THE EXPIATION. 

quity, on account of which the nation is scourged. 
Can that repentance be acceptable in the sight of 
heaven, in which there is not even an acknowl- 
edgement of sin ? 

It is true, that individual christians have long 
deplored the existence of the evil, and made con- 
fessions on behalf of the Government. But when 
has the Government itself ever taken this posi- 
tion ? Never ! If oui- rulers will not get down 
in dust and ashes to humble themselves before 
the Almighty for this sin, let the people set them 
the example. Let petitions, signed by thousands, 
be at once addressed to the President, praying 
him to appoint a day, to be observed as a day of 
humiliation and prayer by the nation at large, 
calling on them especially to make confession and 
repent of that particular form of sin, for which 
the nation is judged, viz : the sin of slavery, if by 
any means, they may be able to avert the just 
anger of heaven. 

If a proclamation like this were to emanate 
from the White House at Washington, it would 
be as welcome to millions of pious hearts, as the 
rising of the star of hope, or as the dawning of 
the day of salvation to our distressed and bleed- 
ing country I We should begin to think that the 



THE EXPIATION. 93 

Lord's anger was already appeased, and that He 
was just about to return to its sheath again, the 
sword drunk with the blood of nearly a million 
of lives I 



H 



vm. 

THE "MALUM IN SE" THEORY. 

A STATE of ignorance may be said to be the 
normal condition of the human mind. And yet 
all the guides and teachers which the Author of 
our being has ordained for the instruction of man, 
teach the way of truth without error. All the 
voices of nature, not less than the voice of Revela- 
tion, incessantly proclaim to him, where the tem- 
ple of truth is situated, and may be regarded as 
so many indices, pointing him in the road that 
leads thither. 

Truth rests upon a firm and immovable basis. 
There is not a truth, that is not as clear as the 
sunlight. There is not an error in the world, 
that has any firm support for its foundation. But 
every error is an illusion, the result of false ap- 
pearances, and maintained by false arguments and 
testimony. 

Why, then, does man— why do all men so eager- 



95 

ly embrace error, rather than truth? Alas! the 
intellect is clouded by sin, and to that extent, 
the natural understanding has been brought in 
subjection to the power of sin. The philosophy 
of the whole subject, is best explained in those 
inspired words, "Men love darkness rather than 
light," — that is, error rather than truth — " because 
their deeds are evil." If the hearts of men were 
not evil, they would not hate truth — they would 
not be averse to the light, and they could not 
love darkness more than the light. But their 
hearts are evil, and to evil inclined — and this 
affords the only true solution in the case. 

Look at the thousands of creeds, and systems, 
and theories that have, at one time or another, 
prevailed in the world. One system, one theory, 
one creed after another passes away, only to 
give place to other systems, and creeds, and 
theories, which, in like manner, soon explode, 
and prove to be no more real or substantial 
than a bubble, on the surface of the waves. 

Where is the system of religion in the world, 
that does not contain in it, a hundred errors to 
one truth, except the system taught in the Book 
of books? Where is the system of human phi- 
losophy, that has stood the test of time, or that 



96 THE " MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 

was Dot erected on a foundation of falsehood? 
Where is the theory of human government, that 
has not proved defective, and soon been changed 
for some other theory ? Where is the book, writ- 
ten by uninspired man, worthy of attention at all, 
that has not inculcated a vast deal, nay, a thou- 
sand times more of error than of truth? Do we 
not know that the philosophies of men are as 
ephemeral and short-lived as their authors? The 
philosophies of one age, give place to those of 
the succeeding, which are substituted in their room, 
and these again are overturned by still newer sys- 
tems, which spring up in the next age. And so 
the world wags on. 

How crooked and diverse are the paths of error I 
Men are continually changing I The man of to- 
day, can hardly be said to be the man of yester- 
day I But Truth never changes I Truth is eter- 
nal I This sentiment cannot be too deeply in- 
scribed on our heart and memory. 

How comes it, that, while one, self-erected into 
a philosopher or teacher of mankind, pronounces 
all slavery a sin — a sin per se — and the very re- 
lationship between master and servant to be sinful ; 
another, equally as wise in his own conceit, and 
confident in his ability to instruct and enlighten 



THE '• MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 97 

his fellow-men, pronounces the institution of slavery 
to be one of Divine appointment, designed for the 
highest good of our race, and intended to be per- 
petuated to the end of time? Can both theories 
be true ? Can either of them be true ? No fact 
can be better established than that both are alike 
founded in error. And yet, it was the conflict be- 
tween these two opposing theories, that has involved 
our unhappy country in this dreadful civil war. 

I cannot now say that I blame the abolition- 
ist, for the instrumentality he has had, in aliena- 
ting the people of the South, and plunging the 
country into a war. For, I think, I see now, that 
he was but an instrument in the hand of the 
higher Power. 

The war might have been averted — perhaps, I 
may say the war would never occurred, but for 
the conflict between these opposing theories, of 
which I have spoken. In fact, all wars result 
from the conflict of opinions amongst men. It is 
the way in which such disputes, when they as- 
sume a national character, are usually settled. 

Perhaps, the war might have been averted. 
But then, how would the Most High have exe- 
cuted his decree of vengeance ? For, that He had 
formed such a decree, to punish this nation for 



98 THE "malum IX se" theory. 

all the crimes and bloodshed of which they had 
been guilty in perpetrating the horrors of the 
African slave trade, and in patronizing and up- 
holding the accursed system, for so many years, I 
believe as firmly as that He occupies the throne 
of universal dominion. Still, while I make this 
declaration, I at the same time freely admit, I feel 
no regret, that it was the abolitionist and not 
myself, who was employed as the instrument in 
bringing to pass the accomplishment of that de- 
cree of wrath, at the fulfilment of which the na- 
tions of the earth stand aghast. 

If the abolitionist had been content simply to 
denounce the African slave-trade — If he had only 
warred against the system of slavery existing in 
the Southern States, as, in many of its features, and 
under the existing laws and regulations of those 
States subversive of the rights of humanity, and con- 
trary to the principles of the Divine will, as made 
known in his word, I for one should never have had 
any cause of disagreement with him, provided he 
had conducted the controversy in a christian spirit. 

But when he went beyond this, and began to 
teach a new philosophy, advocating the malum in 
se, theory, in reference to slavery, he assumed a 
position from which he was compelled to draw a 



99 



line, even through the church of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, excommunicating in a body, all slave- 
holding christians, with whom fraternal and chris- 
tian communion had been maintained, ever since 
there has been a church on earth. He introduced 
a new test of christian character, which neither 
Christ nor his apostles had ever instituted, as a 
necessary qualification for the communion of the 
church ; and had he lived in the days of the apos- 
tles, he would have excluded many from the 
church, whom they retained in it. For it is not 
denied, that, among the various communities, to 
whom Paul, and the other apostles addressed 
their epistles, there were slave-holding christians. 
But no where, in any of their epistles, do we find 
any intimation, that they were to renounce all 
connection with slavery, or, in other words, to 
liberate their servants or bondmen, as a neces- 
sary qualification for the communion of the church. 
There is not a sentence in any of those epistles, 
from which the inference can be logically drawn, 
that all slavery is a sin, which must, therefore, be 
classed with murder, theft, adultery, drunkenness, 
and other such like abominations, which are sins 
at all times, no matter under what circumstances 
committed. 



100 THE "MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 

Further, this new and extraordinary dogma, 
would have excluded from the favor of God, and 
from the hope of salvation, the ancient patriarchs, 
and founders of the Jewish Church, Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob, who, we know from the Divine 
Record, were the proprietors of immense numbers 
of servants, both of those whom they had raised, 
and whom they had bought with their money. 
Nay, the same theory necessarily arraigns the wis- 
dom of the Divine Legislation, in establishing 
slavery, by express command, among the Hebrews, 
in the land of Canaan, after the original inhabit- 
ants had been dispossessed and subdued. For 
these and other reasons, I never did, and I do 
not now, adopt or endorse that theory. 

Let us look, for a moment, at the effects of the 
promulgation of that dogma. It cannot be de- 
nied that ecclesiastical bodies have been rent 
asunder and divided, Northern christians refusing 
all fellowship and communion with Southern chris- 
tians, because of the sin of slavery. And if the 
unity of the body of Christ was destroyed, under the 
effects of this preaching, was it reasonable to ex- 
pect, or to hope, that the body politic could re- 
main one and indivisible ? 

As soon as the abolitionist had adopted tho 



101 



malum in se theory, and had made himself sure 
of the truth of it, that moment, he lost all fra- 
ternal and charitable sentiments towards South- 
ern christians, or those involved in a connection 
with slavery. He began to regard them as 
heathen and as sinners. The very fact of their 
owning a slave, was sufficient proof to him, that 
they were still in an unchristian state — still "in 
the gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity, ^^ Of 
course, he felt himself justifiable in denouncing 
them as ^^ kidnappers " ^^ man-stealers,^^ ^^ robbers " as 
men ^'in covenant with hell and in league with 
death," etc., etc. Prior to the date of the pro- 
mulgation of that dogma, Christian charity for- 
bade that any class of communicants should be 
thus denounced. But as soon as the abolitionist 
had got in possession of a principle, which ex- 
cluded this class all from the church, he might, 
without any great inconsistency, begin to employ 
harsh and bitter words, and to treat as heathens, 
those made such by his own philosophy. 

The legitimate fruit of these bitter denuncia- 
tions, and this altered style of address, towards 
the South, was soon apparent. As might have 
been anticipated, it caused irritation. A feeling 
of alienation between the two sections of North 



102 THE 

and South was engendered. That alienation has 
increased and strengthened, from the first mo- 
ment, up to the present time. Hatred against 
the abolitionists has become the passion of the 
Southern people — an intense hatred, which I can 
only describe as fiendish 1 

Of course, no one would undertake to justify 
the people of the South for thus having the worst 
passions of their nature aroused, and giving them- 
selves up, on so slight a provocation, to the ab- 
solute possession of such vindictive passions. I 
am speaking of the results that followed from the 
propagation of the"ma/wm in ^e" theory. Neither 
would I assert, that, it was the aim of the abo- 
litionist, to produce these results. It might have 
been — it probably was, his design, simply, by ad- 
monition, by warning, by rebuke, to point out to 
slave-holders, the enormity of their guilt, and 
lead them to put away the sin of slavery. 

If this was all the abolitionist designed, the 
design was honorable and upright. But it is 
quite certain that he erred, in the use of the lan- 
guage and manner employed, for the accomplish- 
ment of his design. Human nature is the same 
the world over. Men may be persuaded — they 
can even endure the language of remonstrance 



THE "malum in SE" THEORY. 103 

and rebuke, when spoken in kindness. But they 
cannot be driven to any measures of reform, no 
matter how necessary. And they rebel and turn 
upon their assailants, when attacked by opprobri- 
ous and insulting epithets. 

Another effect, which followed the violent course 
of the abolitionists, was to put slave-holders in an 
attitude of self-defense, in regard to their peculiar 
institution. They began to use weapons and ar- 
guments which they had not previously employed. 
Not only did they close their eyes and their ears 
to all appeals and all arguments coming from a 
Northern source, but they set themselves diligently 
to study the arguments on their own side of the 
question, and soon began to acquire a wonderful 
facility in converting even the shallowest sophisms 
into the most convincing arguments, for the Di- 
vine origin of slavery. 

Parson Smiley, of Mississippi, was the first, I 
believe, who attempted to defend the institution, 
upon Bible authority. He brought out his pam- 
phlet in the year 1837. I was residing in Natchez, 
at the time, and I remember well, what were my 
own sensations, and how other ministers among 
his brethren, seemed to be grieved by the boldness 
of this attempt to sustain such an institution, by 



104 THE 

an appeal to the word of God. The impression 
seemed to be, that, it would seriously and injuri- 
ously affect the whole Church, especially in the 
South. But the pamphlet had its influence. Peo- 
ple read it — the quotations, arguments, and infer- 
ences, all seemed to be plausible and apposite. 
And soon there were not a few among the more 
intelligent and wealthy of the population, who 
were willing to accord to Mr. Smiley, the honor 
of having written an unanswerable defense of their 
cherished institution. From time to time, since, 
other productions of a similar nature have been 
published, till now, there is scarcely any gentle- 
man's library in the South, that is not well-stocked 
with volumes, advocating the Divine origin of 
slavery. Not one slave-holder, perhaps, in a hund- 
red, could be found who would presume to ques- 
tion the Divine right, or the morality of the insti- 
tution. Such, and so great is the change, that has 
taken place in the public sentiment at the South, 
on this exciting topic, within a period of less than 
thirty years. 

I cannot say that I am prepared to affirm, that 
this sudden and rapid change, on a subject of 
such absorbing interest, was wholly a reaction- 
ary result, produced by the measures adopted by 



THE " MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 105 

the extreme abolition party in the North. I only 
state, what appear to me to haTO been, the facts 
in the case. One thing, however, I will affirm ; 
and it is, that, up to the date above mentioned, 
there were few pious men in the Church at the 
South, or even among the more intelligent plant- 
ers, who did not freely admit that slavery is an evil. 
They usually qualified the admission, however, by 
saying that it is a necessary evil, and unavoidable 
in certain conditions of society. 

Thus, the conflict between opinions, North and 
South, was initiated. Churches have been divided 
by lines running parallel with Mason's and Dixon's 
line. A spirit of irreconcilable enmity has been 
engendered, between the people of the two sections. 
And now, we behold this once and long favored 
land, desolated with fire and sword, and drenched 
in fraternal blood. ''^Behold how great a matter, a 
littte fire kindleth .'" 

Can we suppose that such direful calamities to 
Church and State, could have befallen this nation, 
unless the way had been prepared by this con- 
flict between false opinions? Suppose the aboli- 
tionist had remained quiet ; suppose he had never 
put forth his dogma, the '^ malum in se^' theory, 
which, with all respect, I would say, is not to be 



106 THE ''MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 

found in the Bible ; suppose he had refrained from 
all agitation on the subject of slavery, and just 
consented that the people of the Slave States, 
should manage their own institution, in their own 
way ; suppose, further, that, instead of being an 
agitator, he had become a missionary to the South, 
(it was an inviting field,) and labored for the con- 
version of masters, conversing and mingling with 
them freely ; endeavoring, in the spirit of that 
charity, inculcated in the Gospel, to convince them 
of their errors, whilst, at the same time, he had 
access to the slaves, both to preach to them, and 
to instruct them in Sabbath-schools- -suppose these 
things, and we have a right to suppose them ; what 
then? 

That universal and bitter hatred, which possesses 
the hearts of the Southern against the Northern 
people, would have had no existence now — for it 
arose against abolitionists ! The Churches had 
not been distracted and divided ! Harmony and 
concord had still reigned, as in former years, from 
one extremity to the other of this great republic. 
And, above all, the process of gradual emancipa- 
tion might have been going forward still, as for- 
merly. 

It was as late as the year 1808 that the Afri- 



THE "MALUM IX SE " THEORY. 107 

can slave trade was abolished in this country. 
This was a triumph, which, as I must think, was 
achieved by Christianity. Since that period, several 
of the States in which slavery had existed, have 
abolished the institution. New York became a 
free State as late, I believe, as tlie year 1827, just 
a short time before the ultra abolitionists began 
their efforts at agitation. And, at the very mo- 
ment, when those efforts were commenced ; and 
the new dogma was announced, memorials were 
circulating in the State of Kentucky, to which 
thousands of signatures had been obtained, pray- 
ing the Legislature so to change the constitution, 
as to provide for the gradual extinction of slavery 
in the State. But these memorials were with- 
drawn in consequence of those efforts, and the 
work of emancipation was stopped. There has 
been no advance since, till this war was initiated. 
Emancipation is accomplished now, with a ven- 
geance I 

I confess myself among the number of those 
who believe, that, there is an inherent moral 
power in Christianity, adequate to the complete 
regeneration of the world, and the suppression of 
all those evils which afflict human society. Under 
its benign auspices, emancipation might have pro- 



108 THE "MALUM 

gressed, till there had not been found one slave 
in Christendom. The unity of the churches might 
have been preserved. The friendly relations be- 
tween the inhabitants of the different sections of 
the Union, might have been maintained. And we 
might have been spared the pain of witnessing 
the horrors of this cruel war. But, the Infinite 
Buler of the universe had willed otherwise, and 
he raised up the instruments to execute the pur- 
pose of his will. 

I will, here, take the liberty to introduce a 
short extract from an article in the Princeton Re- 
view, published several years before the beginning 
of our national troubles. It is a very able and 
lucid dissertation on the subject of slavery. In 
it, the author, supposed to be Dr. Hodge, plainly 
forewarned the country of what would inevitably 
be the consequences of a persistent effort, on the 
part of abolitionists, to maintain the " malum in 
56 " theory. "What he foretold as a necessary and 
logical consequence of that theory, we see, now, 
to be an accomplished fact, 

"The assumption that slave-holding is itself a 
crime, is not only an error, but it is an error 
fraught with evil consequences. It not merely 
brings its advocates into conflict with the Scrip? 



THE " MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 109 

tures, but it does much to retard the progress of 
freedom ; it embitters, and divides the members of 
the community, and distracts the christian church. 
Its operation in retarding the progress of free- 
dom, is obvious and manifold. In the first place, 
it directs the battery of the enemies of slavery to 
the wrong point. It might be easy for them to 
establish the injustice or cruelty of certain slave 
laws, where it is not in their power to establish 
the sinfulness of slavery itself. They, therefore, 
waste their strength. Nor, is this the least evil. 
They promote the cause of their opponents. If 
they do not discriminate between slave-holding 
and the slave-laws, it gives the slave-holder, not 
merely an excuse, but an occasion, and a reason 
for making no such distinction. He is thus led to 
feel the same conviction in the propriety of the 
one, that he does in that of the other. His mind 
and conscience may be satisfied, that the mere act 
of holding slaves is not a crime. This is the 
point, however, to which the abolitionist directs 
his attention. He examines their arguments, and 
becomes convinced of their inconclusiveness, and 
is not only thus rendered impervious to their at- 
tacks, but is exasperated by what he considers 
their unmerited abuse. In the mean time, his at- 



110 THE "MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 

tention is withdrawn from far more important 
points ; the manner in which he treats his slaves, 
and the laws enacted for the security of his poses- 
sion. These are points on which his judgment 
might be much more readily convinced of error, 
and his conscience of sin. 

"Again, the opinion, that slave-holding is, it- 
self a crime, must operate to produce the disunion 
of the States, and the division of all the ecclesiastical 
societies in this country. The feelings of the peo- 
ple may be excited violently for a time, but the 
transport soon passes away. But if the conscience 
is enlisted in the cause, and becomes the control- 
ling principle, the alienation between the North 
and the South, must become permanent. The op- 
position to Southern institutions will become calm, 
constant and unappeasable. Just so far as this 
opinion operates, it will lead those who entertain 
it, to submit to any sacrifices to carry it out, and 
give it effect. We shall become two nations, in feel- 
ing, which must soon render us two nations in fact. 
With regard to the church, its operation will 
be more summary. If slave-holding is a heinous 
crime, slave-holders must be excluded from the church. 
Several of our judicatories have already taken 
this position. Should the General Assembly 



Ill 



adopt it, the church is, ipso facto divided. If the 
opinion in question is correct, it must be main- 
tained, whatever are the consequences. We are 
no advocates of expediency in morals. We have 
no more right to teach error, in order to prevent 
evil, than we have a right to do evil, to promote 
good. On the other hand, if the opinion is in- 
correct, its evil consequences render it a duty to 
prove and exhibit its unsoundness. It is under 
the deep impression that, the primary assumption 
of the abolitionists is an error, that its adoption 
tends to the distraction of the country, and the di- 
visicm of the church ; and that it will lead to the 
longer continuance and greater severity of slavery, 
that we have felt constrained to do what little 
we could, towards its correction." 

Now, the above paragraphs, let it be remem- 
bered, were penned months and years before the 
logical and necessary tendency of this fundamental 
doctrine of the abolitionists, had been fully devel- 
oped. But, being able to perceive the connection 
between a cause and its effects, the writer fore- 
saw clearly, and predicted what must be the con- 
sequences of that system. And now, we have to 
record those consequences as accomplished facts — 



112 THE 

in every particular, except in regard to the state- 
ment in the last sentence, where the writer says : 
"it will lead to the longer continuance of sla- 
very." It has led to the sudden and immediate 
downfall of slavery iu this country. But, as I 
stated before, the result was decreed by the Power 
that rules over all. 

Henceforward, I am an abolitionist. I have 
been one, from the day of the bombardment of 
Fort Sumter. I was then, as well convinced that 
God had purposed the immediate and utter over- 
throw of the institution, as I was, when President 
Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Emancipation. 
I will not, knowingly, be found in the ranks of 
those who resist, or fight against that overruling 
Providence. I am in favor of immediate and en- 
tire emancipation, and shall co-operate cordially, 
and with all my energies, with abolitionists and 
all others who labor for the accomplishment of 
this end. Though I have ever believed that sla- 
very is an evil, yet I do not now, and never did 
accord in the sentiment, that all slavery is a sin. 
But, in regard to the system of African slavery, 
as it prevailed in the South, I am free to express 
my opinion that it is a system of iniquity and a 



THE ''MALUM ::; se'' theory. 113 

compound of horrors. If I have not already suf- 
ficiently made known the reasons for this opinion, 
I shall endeavor to do so, in the subsequent pages 
of this work. 



114 



IX. 

CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 

Does Christianity sanction or tolerate slavery? 
It has been argued by many, who profess to be 
Christians, that it does, and many books have 
been written to prove it. But here is what the 
Divine Author of Christianity says ; " The Spirit 
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed 
me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; He hath 
sent me to lieal the broken-hearted, to preach 
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of 
sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that 
are bound ; to preach the acceptable year of the 
Lord." The acceptable year of the Lord is sup- 
posed to refer to the year of jubilee, which was 
the year, when, under the old Jewish dispensation, 
all the prisoners and captives were set at liberty. 

The Son of God proclaims that the words of 
this prophecy were to be fulfilled by his mission 
into the world. Now I design to show that He 



CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 115 

is acting in accordance with what he said was the 
design of his mission to this earth. He is freeing 
the captive from his chains. He is bringing lib- 
erty to them that were bound. He is so mana- 
ging and directing, by his mighty Providence, the 
affairs of this world, as to hasten and bring about 
a grand jubilee to the whole earth, when all shall 
be free. 

We know, that, before the dawn of the Chris- 
tian era, slavery existed, and had existed, from 
time immemorial, almost throughout the world. It 
existed in Egypt. It existed in Persia. It exist- 
ed among the Jews. It existed among the Greeks. 
It prevailed in the Roman Empire. It existed in 
nearly all the countries of modern Europe. 

Not only did Turks sell christians, and white 
men sell black men, but white men sold slaves of 
tlieir own color and race. Even our ancestors in 
England, sold their own brethren-, of the Anglo- 
Saxon race, into the most ignominious bondage. 
These are facts, well known to every student of 
history. And yet, no voice, has ever been lifted 
up, in condemnation of the universal practice, save 
the voice of Christianity. 

But how stands the case now? Slavery has 
been blotted out, from every country, where the 



116 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 

christian is the prevailing religion, except Brazil, 
the Spanish West Indies, and our Southern States ; 
and in the last named, we see, that, under the 
effect of the stores of Divine vengeance, which 
have descended on the heads of those who upheld 
the accursed system, it is just now in the agonies 
of dissolution. 

The selling of human beings as slaves, is no 
longer tolerated or practised in any of the coun- 
tries of Europe. It is extremely doubtful whether 
the system can survive ten years longer in Cuba 
or Brazil. And when it shall receive its death 
blow there, it will cease forever to have any ex- 
istence in the new world. 

This is what Christianity has done, and is doing, 
for the cause of freedom. The march of the 
latter, is co-extensive with the progress of the 
former. 

Let there be none in the ranks of the church- 
militant, who deny to Jesus Christ, the honor of 
these glorious triumphs of the gospel, in favor of 
human liberty. Let no one be heard to make the 
objection, that the African slave trade was origin- 
ated, and carried on, under the auspices and pat- 
ronage of christian countries. Those countries 
were nominally christian, it is true, but, really and 



CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 117 

emphatically, they were infidel. What was France, 
but an infidel country? Spain was no better. 
And England was quite as much given up to li- 
centiousness and free thinking, as either. Read 
the chronicles of those days, and you will be satis- 
fied, that, as late as only one hundred years ago, 
at least nine out of ten of all the men who had 
any political influence or power in England, as 
well as in France and other countries, were open 
and avowed infidels. 

The same thing may be said concerning the 
state of religious and moral sentiment, in our 
own country, some eighty or one hundred years 
ago. Men, in the highest position, were in the 
habit of making a boast of their infidel opinions. 
The writings of Tom Paine and Yoltaire, were 
far more popular than the sacred Scriptures. 

One member of Congress was known to address 
another member, in a letter, in which he asserted 
that they ought to begin to deal with preachers 
and priests as they were doing in France. This 
was while the guillotine was in operation. An- 
other member of Congress called at a book-store 
in Philadelphia, to purchase a Bible. The book- 
seller told him that they kept no Bibles for sale. 
"No Bibles?" — inquiringly responded the Congress- 



118 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 

man — "No, sir" — returned the merchant, and 
added, "we begin to think that the time is near, 
when the Bible will be neither read nor sold in 
Philadelphia." The statesman, who happened to 
be a believer in the truth of Revelation, though 
not a church member, was indignant at this re- 
mark, and administered a severe but just rebuke ; 
" sir, the Bible will be read and sold in Philadel- 
phia, a thousand years after you have been roast- 
ing in hell!" 

I have mentioned these incidents, simply for the 
purpose of conveying a faint conception of the 
deplorable state of morals and religion in these 
several countries, at the period, when the bloody 
traffic in the bodies and souls of men, was in the 
height of its glory. It may truly be said, that 
the voice of Christianity was silent, so far as leg- 
islation in civil affairs was concerned, during all 
those years. Indeed, to attribute this cruel and 
nefarious trafi&c to any christian influence or 
power, as its origin and source, would be a libel 
against God himself. 

A great change has taken place in the aspect 
of things, since the dawn of the present century. 
Christianity is beginning to achieve her destined 
triumphs, and, as soon as she gains the ascend- 



CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 119 

ency in any country, the fetters immediately fall 
from the limbs of the enslaved and oppressed. 
To the persevering efforts of Wilberforce, Clark- 
son and other distinguished philanthropists and 
statesmen, we justly ascribe the triumph of the 
principles of justice and humanity, which resulted 
in the suppression of the African slave-trade. Few 
men, whose names are emblazoned in history, have 
done more for their race. We believe that they 
were divinely fitted and raised up, for the work 
which they accomplished. In portraying, in the 
British Parliament, the wrongs of bleeding hu- 
manity, we believe that it was the voice of Jesus 
Christ which spoke through them. 

Why should slavery disappear, and retreat be- 
fore the successful and triumphant progress of 
Christianity? The answer is not obscure or diffi- 
cult. It is, essentially, a system of cruelty, where- 
as, Christianity is a system of mercy ! They are 
antagonistic systems, and cannot, by any possibil- 
ity, be combined, or made to coalesce. The most 
zealous advocate of African slavery, would be 
compelled, if he were candid, to admit that it is 
a system of cruelty, oppression, and murder ! 

Look at slavery, in its origin. It robbed Af- 
rica of forty millions of her children, who were 



120 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 

carried in chains, and sold in distant countries. 
In the enslavement of these, a like number per- 
ished, who were murdered outright, or died un- 
der the barbarities inflicted by kidnappers. Is 
it not a system of cruelty — a very combination 
of horr(yrs — as Thomas Jefferson called it? Can 
we refuse to believe that it was the purpose of 
Christ's mission into the world, to destroy all 
such iniquitous systems? 

Again, look at slavery in its more matured state, 
and in its full-grown developments, as it has 
existed in our Southern States — "■ What are the 
fruits of the system during the last fifty years ?'^ 
More than one hundred thousand murders, com- 
mitted by blows and other injuries, inflicted by 
overseers and masters, for which no legal process 
was ever instituted — from four to five millions of 
men, women, and children, sold by domestic slave- 
traders, and carried into distant States, thus de- 
prived of all hope of ever seeing wife, husband, 
children, or parents again — at least half a million 
of slave-children, sacrificed in infancy, whose death 
was caused by cruelty to their mothers, at a period 
when they required to be treated with tenderness 
and care — laws enacted, putting fetters on the 
mind itself, binding it down in ignorance, and 



CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 121 

debarring it from all access to that knowledge, 
which ought to be as free as the air we breathe 
— thousands of aristocratic families, reveling in 
luxuries and wealth, the fruits of slave-breeding, 
which has been a legitimate and creditable occu- 
pation in several of the States. These are some 
of the fruits of slavery, during the last half-cen- 
tury. Is it any thing else but a system of cruelty 
and murder? When darkness can dwell with 
light, or exist under the brightness of the noon- 
day sun, then may this system of iniquity, be 
brought into a state of harmony with GodJs system 
of inercy. 

The spirit of Christianity breathes " peace on earth 
and good will to man." This was the proclamation 
with which its birth was announced. But good 
will to universal man, cannot mean that some men, 
may bind others, of their fellow-men, in chains, 
and sell them as slaves. 

The Divine Redeemer of the world, proclaimed 
that he came to destroy the works of the devil, and 
to deliver those who, all their lives, were held in 
bondage. But we are sure, he did not intend to 
teach that those whom he had delivered from the 
power of their master, the devil, and made the 
Lord's freedmcn, should be held still as captives 



122 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 

and slaves by any of the devil's confederates. 
Where he has lost his authority, they certainly 
can have no right to lord it over God's children. 

The very essence of Christianity is love — love 
to God and love for man. " Love is the fulfilling 
of the law." " Thou shalt love thy neighbor, as 
thyself." " By this shall ye know that ye are my 
disciples, that ye love one another." "If any 
man say that he loves God, whom he hath not 
seen, and hateth his brother, whom he hath seen, 
he is a liar." 

All the disciples of Christ, are called brethren. 
Can a man love his brother as himself, and yet 
claim the right to sell him — to sell his wife and 
children — to cut and mark his body with stripes 
— to deprive him of all means of knowledge — to 
exact his toil with sweat and stripes and allow 
him no wages! Is this what is meant by the 
new command Christ gave to his disciples, to 
love one another? 

But this question is not a novel one. Very 
soon after the introduction of Afi-ican slavery into 
this country, the question arose, whether Christian- 
ity does not enfranchise its converts. " The 
Christian world" — I now quote from Bancroft's 
History—" The christian world of that day, almost 



CHRISTIANITY VEBSUS SLAVERY. 123 

universally, revered in Christ, the impersonation 
of the Divine wisdom. Could an intelligent being, 
who, through the Mediator, had participated in the 
Spirit of God, and, by his own inward experience, 
had become conscious of a supreme existence, and 
of relations between that existence and humanity 
be rightfully held in bondage ? From New Eng- 
land to Carolina, the notion prevailed, that, ' being 
baptized is inconsistent with a state of slavery ; ' 
and this early apprehension proved a main obsta- 
cle to the culture and conversion of these poor 
people. The sentiment was so deep and general, 
that South Carolina, in 1712, Maryland in 1715, 
Virginia r-epeatedly, from '1667 to 1748, gave a 
negative to it by special enactments." 

This is, certainly, a very curious and instructive 
passage of history. What was the notion which 
prevailed "from New England to Carolina," and 
was '^ so deep and gene7'al,^^ as to cause masters to 
deprive their slaves of all means of religious in- 
struction and conversion, lest they should lose 
their right of ownership in them? It was the 
notion, that, if they should be converted, and re- 
ceived into the Church by the holy ordinance of 
baptism, they could no longer be rightfully held 
in a state of slavery. Under the influence of this 



124 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 

general and deep religious conviction, the conver- 
sion of a slave, if he belonged to a Christian 
master, necessarily secured his manumission. 

From what source, did the Christians of that 
early day, obtain this deep and almost universal 
religious impression? Let the modern advocates 
of slavery, who claim to belong to the Chris- 
tian brotherhood, answer. 

But the prevalence of this sentiment, was an 
obstacle in the way of the religious instruction 
and conversion of the poor slaves. For, as, in 
the case of a majority of the planters, their cupid- 
ity and avarice preponderated over their religious 
convictions^ they adopted measures to keep these 
Africans in ignorance, and to prevent their con- 
version, lest they should lose their right of prop- 
erty in them, as slaves. The State legislatures 
had to take up the subject, and enact special laws, 
urging and enforcing on masters the observance 
of those duties, in the treatment of their slaves, 
which every dictate of reason, as well as religion, 
required. But these enactments failed to have 
the desired effect, as the love of lucre was stronger 
than piety in the hearts of the masters, and they 
were not willing to let their slaves be converted, 
till the legislatures had solemnly declared, by a 



CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 125 

legislative act, that a converted and baptized slave, 
might be lawfully and consistently held in a state 
of bondage. But, so strong and deep was the 
general religious conviction to the contrary of 
this, that one single legislative decision was not 
sufficient. The enactment had to be repeated again 
and again, and by different legislatures, before the 
conscience of those Christian masters had become 
schooled up to the point of permitting them, to 
keep and hold a Christian brother or sister as a 
slave. 

This, to say the least, was rather an anomalous 
proceeding ; politicians, worldly-minded and selfish 
men, many of whom were, doubtless, infidels,' meet- 
ing in solemn deliberation, to settle a point in 
religious morals ; and, by a legislative enactment, 
declaring that to be right and moral, which Chris- 
tians generally, on their understanding of what 
Christ had enacted in his word, had believed to 
be wrong. 

But they settled the question. And this fact in 
history, is to be remembered by the advocates of 
slavery. The Assembly of South Carolina, and 
other assemblies, mere secular bodies, who had no 
authority to legislate in matters of religious faith, 
established the morality of holding a Christian 



126 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 

man or woman in bondage, in opposition to the 
universal sentiment of the Church in those days. 

And now, let us see what the Apostle Paul has 
said and written on this identical subject, the 
holding of christian brethren in a state of slavery. 

" Masters, give unto your servants, that which 
is just and equal, knowing that ye, also, have a 
master in Heaven." 

Here is a law, an enactment, ordained by the 
highest authority, which, if universally observed, 
would lead to universal emancipation, in every 
country where christian law prevails. The duty 
of the master is stated, with the motive to its per- 
formance. Give to your servants, that which jus- 
tice and equity require. This is the duty, stated in 
terms so clear, as not to be misunderstood, except 
wilfully. And the motive to the performance of 
this duty, is, the knowledge the master has, that 
he is himself a servant — that Christ is his Master, 
and he must, therefore, do unto his servant as he 
would have Christ his master in Heaven, do unto 
him. 

Under the operation of such a law as this, no 
service rendered, could be without its just reward. 
It would insure to the slave all the education and 
training essential to his happiness in this world, 



CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 127 

and his preparation for another. It would afford 
a sure guarantee against being forcibly separated 
from his wife — against having his children sold, 
or being sold himself to some merciless tyrant. 
In short, such a law, if generally observed, would 
abolish slavery throughout the world. 

Admit that there are precepts which seem to 
sanction slavery, as one of the institutions existing 
at the time, when Christianity was born. They 
sanction it, only in such a negative manner, as to 
prohibit christians from putting themselves in ar- 
ray against existing governments, and such politi- 
cal and social institutions as had originated under 
those governments. 

" Let as many servants, as are under the yoke, 
count their own masters worthy of all honor.'' 
"Why is this precept given ? The reason is im- 
mediately annexed — " that the name of God and 
his doctrine be not blasphemed," — that is to say, 
that the heathen powers that rule be not pro- 
voked to deny Christ and to make war upon the 
infant church. 

We know, that, if the apostles had put them- 
selves in opposition to the civil or political insti- 
tutions of their day ; if, for example, they had 
commanded masters to liberate their slaves on the 



128 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 

ground that all slavery is a sin ; or, if they had 
exhorted servants to desert their masters, for the 
reason that they had no right to hold them in 
bondage, every political power of that age, and 
the whole heathen world would have conspired 
for the destruction of the church. Therefore, sub- 
mission was inculcated, even to the enforcement 
of unjust and unrighteous laws. Hear the great 
apostle once more ; 

" Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man, 
for the Lord's sake. For so is the will of God, 
that with well-doing, ye may put to silence, the 
ignorance of foolish men ; as free, and not using 
your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as 
the servants of God. Honor all men. Love the 
brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Ser- 
vants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not 
only to the good and gentle, but also to the fro- 
ward. For this is thank-worthy, if a man for 
conscience toward God, endure grief, suffering 
wrongfully." 

Have the advocates of opposition, pondered 
these significant words ? " It is thank-worthy" — 
that is, it is commendable, that a Christian, who 
is, at the same time, a slave, " endure grief, suffer- 
ing wrong fully^^ for conscience towards God j or. 



CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 129 

because God requires him, in the present emer- 
gency, to be patient, and submit to every ordi- 
nance of man. Does such language imply any 
approbation of the system of wrong, under which 
the slave thus endures grief, and pines away in 
useless sighs for freedom? 

The Apostle Paul assumed the responsibility 
of emancipating a slave, who belonged not to 
himself, but to another. Perhaps this statement 
is rather too strong ; and I qualify it, by saying, 
that he wrote such a letter to Philemon, in be- 
half of Onesimus, that it had been impossible for 
Philemon longer to have kept him in involuntary 
servitude. I will quote the passage entire : 

"Wherefore, though I might be much bold in 
Christ, to inform thee that which is convenient, 
yet, for love's sake, I rather beseech thee, being 
such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a 
prisoner of Jesus Christ. I beseech thee for my 
son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my 
bonds, which in time past, was to thee unprofit- 
able, but now, profitable to thee and to me ; 
whom I have sent again ; thou therefore receive 
him, that is, mine own bowels ; whom I would 
have retained with me, that, in thy stead, he 
might have ministered unto me in the bonds of 



130 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 

the Gospel ; but without thy mind, would I do 
nothing, that thy benefit should not be, as it 
were, of necessity, but willingly. For, perhaps. 
he therefore departed for a season, that thou 
shouldst receive him forever ; not now as a 
servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, 
especially to me, but how much more unto thee, 
both in the flesh, and in the Lord? If thou 
count me, therefore, a partner, receive him as my- 
self. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth aught, 
put that on mine account; I Paul have written 
it with mine own hand, I will repay it ; albeit 
I do not say to thee, how thou owest unto me 
even thine own self besides. Yea, brother, let 
me have joy of thee in the Lord ; refresh my 
bowels in the Lord. Having confidence in thy 
obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou 
wilt also do more than I say." 

What a tender and loving appeal is this whole 
letter — though he might have used the language 
of command, yet, for love's sake, he chose to em- 
ploy the language of entreaty, in behalf of Onesi- 
mus — I beseech thee for my soil Onesimus. lie 
speaks of him as his son, his awn bowels — and 
exhorts Philemon to receive him as himself, that 
is, with all the marks of esteem and brotherly 



CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 131 

love, with which he would have received the 
great Apostle. He exhorts him, to receive him, 
not as a slave, or servant, but above a servant — as 
a brother beloved, both in the jiesh, and in the Lord, 
Does not this imply a command to Philemon, to 
liberate his slave, to set Onesimus free, since he 
is now a brother beloved in the Lord ? 

He intimates that he would have retained 
Onesimus with him, as he had a right, but he 
sends him back, not to be a slave again, but that 
he, Philemon, might perform the favor or benefit 
which he solicited, willingly, or voluntarily, and 
not from necessity or constraint. 

Paul knew that Philemon would do what he 
requested — ^^ having confidence in thy obedience, I 
wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wUt also do 
mm-e than I say^ 

And what was the result? Onesimus was 
emancipated. He was never held in bondage 
another day. And we may believe that a brother 
in Christ, so highly commended as Philemon, re- 
garded as an occasion for devout gratitude, the 
privilege of performing an act of kindness, at 
once so just and so consonant to the Spirit of 
Christ. 

We afterwards find Onesimus as a fellow-laborer 



132 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 

with Paul, in the bonds of the Gospel, and em- 
ployed by him as a messenger to the churches. 
He finally settled at Ephesus, and became its 
bishop as "we are informed by St. Ignatius, and 
his memory is cherished by many, as one of the 
martyrs of the church. 

Now, in this case, I confess that I see an act 
of emancipation, based solely on the ground, that 
the enslaved had become, spiritually, the son, and 
therefore the equal of Paul himself — had become 
the brother, and therefore the equal of Philemon 
the master, and helcwed in the Lord. It was on 
this ground alone, that his freedom was solicited, 
and that it was granted. 

The case may, or may not, furnish a general 
rule or principle, which may apply to all similar 
cases. I undertake not to determine. But I may 
be allowed to say that I feel truly grateful that 
though I have lived so many years in the midst 
of the evils of slavery, I have never claimed the 
right of ownership or property, in one of Christ's 
brethren. 



133 



THE YOICE OF BLOOD. 

Murder is a crime that never goes unpunished ! 
We may not know what mark was branded on 
the first murderer, Cain; but we do know the 
malediction of the Most High fell on him, and 
he became a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. 
And, doubtless, the complaint which fell from his 
lips, " my punishment is greater than I can hear" has 
found an echo, in the heart of every one, who in 
any age or country since, has imbrued his hands 
in the blood of a fellow-being. 

Let the murderer go where he will, he feels that 
he is but a fugitive and a vagabond. The anger 
of God has burned his guilt deep into his con- 
science. 

He may escape the penalty affixed to his crime 
by the laws of the land. He may conceal his 
crime from the knowledge of men, but he can- 
not hide it from himself, nor from the all-seeing 



134 THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 

eye of his Maker. Wherever he goes, in whatever 
country he may seek to be unknown, the curse 
goes with him, the voice of his brother's blood 
seeming, every where, to rise out of the very 
ground, on which he treads, and crying for ven- 
geance. He may shift from one scene of revelry 
and merriment, to another, to drown thought. 
But 'tis all in vain ; he is not, and he cannot be, 
a happy man. The curse of the Almighty is rest- 
ing on him. The uneasy and anxious counte- 
nance, and the restless eye, betray a soul ill at 
ease. 

0, have you ever known one who had the guilt 
of murder on his conscience ! He can hardly trust 
himself alone, and yet, he seems as if he would 
avoid all intercourse with his fellow-men. He is 
afraid his dreadful secret will be disclosed, and 
yet, it is with difficulty, he can keep from betray- 
ing that secret himself. He bears in his own 
bosom, the punishment of his crime, which he 
would fain expiate on the scaffold, if only he 
dared to brave public sentiment, and bring dis- 
grace on his family by letting the world know, 
that he bears the mark of Cain on his forehead. 
Yea, the curse of the Almighty pursues the mur- 
derer I 



THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 135 

No decree can be more just than that which 
was long ago enacted ; " Whoso sheddeth man's 
blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Not 
only does the felon, who deprives another of exist- 
ence, take away that which he cannot restore, 
but, if we can understand the inspired declaration 
— " for in the image of God created he him^^ — he 
mars that Divine image, as originally impressed 
on the soul of man. And from the connection in 
which that declaration stands recorded, we may 
fairly infer that there is no crime which trans- 
cends this. 

I acknowledge, I am one of those who believe 
that " no murderer hath eternal life abiding in himP 
It may be wrong, but still, I cannot banish from 
my mind the doubt, whether one, who has, delib- 
erately, and with malice aforethought, stained his 
soul with the crime of murder, can be pardoned, 
either in this world, or the next. "He has not 
only deprived his victim of life, but, it may be, 
has sent that victim, unprepared, to the doom of 
a miserable eternity ! And it revolts our sense 
of justice, to suppose that he is pardoned, and 
enjoys the favor of God, through a blissful eter- 
nity, while his victim is suffering the vengeance 
of God. 



136 THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 

I have been with a condemned criminal, in 
his prison. I knew that he had a murderer's 
heart. Moved by the spirit of revenge, he had 
sought his victim, and, at the dark hour of mid- 
night, had deliberately shot him through the heart. 
I did not feel prompted by a sense of Chris- 
tian duty, to kneel down and offer up a prayer 
for his pardon. The conviction was so strong 
in my mind, that there could be no pardon for 
him, that I dared not do it. And I left the cell, 
without even making the attempt. I may have 
been wrong, but I could not resist my convictions, 
nor act contrary to them. I had known the vic- 
tim of his revenge, and had reason to believe 
that, though a better man than the murderer, he 
w^as quite unprepared for his sudden and unex- 
pected exit to worlds unknown. 

I have said that African slavery was a system 
of wholesale murder. At whose hand, is the 
blood of the millions slain by it, now required? 
The Decree of Justice, against the crime of murder, 
has never been repealed. And the Eternal, we 
may be sure, will take care for the inviolability of 
His own law. The execution of that law may be 
sometimes, and often is, long delayed, yet the 
wicked shall not, for that reason, go unpunished. 



THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 137 

Retributive justice must, soon or late, overtake 
the guilty. 

In the book of God's remembrance, the system 
of African slavery, is charged with the guilt of 
the murder of many millions of his children, 
formed originally in his own image. Eigid jus- 
tice demands an atonement. And, unless the De- 
cree, quoted above, has been repealed, an atone- 
ment will be exacted in blood. And because this 
shed blood has been crying so long unavenged, 
must we suppose, either that God does not hear, 
or that he will not attend to that cry at last ? 

Historical writers have told us, that, for the 
forty millions of the inhabitants of Africa, torn 
from their native country, and made slaves in 
America, an equal number were cruelly put to 
death, in various ways, by those emissaries of hell, 
who were employed in the infernal trade. Will 
there be no final reckoning for this? — no party, 
who will be held accountable at the bar of the 
Great Judge, for this lavish waste of human life ? 

And here, it may be proper to note this strik- 
ing and essential difference between African sla- 
very, and every other form of slavery ever known 
in the world. Can we suppose, that, even Abra- 
ham would have been guiltless in the sight of 



138 THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 

God, if he had imported his slaves thousands of 
miles, from another continent, in dark and sus- 
picious looking vessels, manned by pirates, at a 
cost of, at least, one murder committed for every 
slave obtained ? Would the ancient Hebrews 
have been sinless, in the matter of slavery, if they 
had been guilty of the same nefarious practice? 
Their bondmen were natives of the soil. But yet, 
the Jews made no attempt to enslave them, till 
they had received an express conimand from their 
Divine Legislator, to do so. Even the heathen 
nations, of the Roman Empire, who held slaves, 
had at least the shadow of justice in the title, by 
which they held them ; as they had been taken as 
captives in the wars with neighboring States, or 
had been sold to them for debt. In short, this 
system of modern slavery, considered simply with 
reference to its origin, is as much blacker than 
those ancient forms of bondage, as the age of 
Christianity, exceeds in brightness, the ages of 
darkness, when those ancient forms of slavery pre- 
vailed. 

The question still recurs, who will be held to a 
rigid account, for all this bloodshed ? Suppose 
that they were tender and helpless babes, whose 
brains were dashed out against the ti'unk of a 



THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 139 

tree — Suppose that they were aged and infirm 
men and women, valueless as slaves, and unable 
to endure the fatigues of the march to the coast, 
who were therefore shot down, or stabbed, and 
left weltering in their blood— Suppose that others 
were consumed in the fire of their own dwellings — 
Suppose that many perished, from fatigue and ex- 
haustion, in the hurried march, naked and bare- 
foot, over burning sands, to the coast — Suppose 
that many more died of a broken heart, or of fever 
and other diseases contracted from the foul and 
pestilential air, in the confined hold of the ship — 
or, suppose that, sick and dying, they were thrown 
overboard, to feed the sharks ; who is responsible 
for so many millions of murders, committed under 
the full blaze and light of the sun of heaven ? 

It avails naught, to say that nobody will be 
held responsible. Nor, is it a satisfactory an- 
swer, to say, that the guilt belongs solely to the 
kidnappers, or the persons immediately engaged in 
the slave-trade. What were they, but the mere 
instruments or agents of others? Would they 
have robbed Africa, if there had not been a 
market for the spoils? The people who kept 
that market open, were the people who tempted 
the kidnappers to engage in the trafiic— who 



140 THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 

paid them for it — and, in fact, employed them 
as their agents, while thus carrying on a trade, 
marked, at every step, by rapine and bloodshed! 

If the colonies of Virginia and the Carolinas 
had acted as did the colony of Georgia, under 
Oglethorpe's administration, — or as did the peo- 
ple of New England, when the first cargo of Af- 
ricans was landed on their coast; who raised 
such a cry of indignation, against the owners of 
the ship, that they were arrested as malefactors 
and murderers, and the cargo of slaves were sent 
back to their native country, at the public ex- 
pense. If those colonies had acted in this spirit, 
and persisted in such a course, there would have 
been no slavery in this country. The kidnappers 
would have had no patrons, and for the want of 
patronage, would have been compelled to betake 
themselves to some useful occupation. 

Those colonists must have known what they 
were doing, when they created the slave market, 
and threw its doors wide open, inviting the kid- 
nappers to enter upon their hellish trade. They 
knew that every slave imported was the purchase 
of blood and crime. They knew th^it every slave- 
ship which arrived on the coast, had buried its 
scores of mui'dered victims, in the depths of the 



THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 141 

ocean. They were not ignorant of the cruelties 
and horrors of the slave-trade. 

We are driven, therefore, to the conclusion, 
that the states which kept the market, and encour- 
aged and rewarded the kidnappers, while carry- 
ing on the diabolical traffic, are, really, the guilty 
and responsible parties. 

It is now two hundred and forty-three years, 
since the first cargo of slaves was landed on our 
shores. And what does the history of the pecu- 
liar institution exhibit, as it has existed in these 
states, during that period ? I do not exaggerate, 
when I say, that the blood of not less than two 
hundred thousand slaves, is crying to heaven for 
vengeance, from this soil of freedom, whose death 
was caused by blows and wounds inflicted, in the 
severity of punishment, by the inhumanity of mas- 
ters and overseers. There has been no reckoning, 
no atonement. The law of man did not even 
demand a legal investigation. Their life was 
crushed out of them, by a crime, but no notice 
was taken thereof. May we suppose, or can we 
believe that the Divine Legislator, will, in like 
manner, ignore the existence of his law against 
crime, and pass by this numerous class of offend- 
ers and murderers, without the least notice. Will 



14:2 THE YOICE OF BLOOD. 

He also turn a deaf ear to those unavailing cries 
for mercy, which those murdered slaves poured 
in vain in the ears of the tyrants, when sinking 
under the hand of violence, into death? 

No ! His law is perfect, and so I'igidly just, that, 
not the slightest infraction thereof, can go unno- 
ticed ! We believe this — we must believe it, if we 
believe in His existence at all ! 

About the year 1832, I spent a few months 
in Greene County, in the State of Alabama. 
It was the first year of my residence in the 
Slave States. In the immediate neighborhood, 
where I sojourned, there was a lady, the wife 
of a planter, who beat a young servant girl, 
aged about twelve years, in such a cruel man- 
ner, as to cause her death. She had struck her 
a number of times with a heavy stick, or blud- 
geon, and, perhaps, in a state of excitement and 
anger, inflicted blows of such a nature, as that she 
died soon after. But no notice was ever taken 
of the matter, further than to cause a little talk 
in the immediate neighborhood, at the time. 

I knew a wealthy planter, who resided in an- 
other State, some years ago. He was a native 
Southron, who had led a very dissolute and in- 
temperate life. On one occasion, as if in sheer 



THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 143 

sport, he caught up one of his negro children by 
the feet, and swinging it around violently, in the 
air, dashed its head against a horse-block, in the 
yard, so that the blood spurted from its nostrils 
and mouth, causing its death, almost instantane- 
ously. The body was buried, of course ; and, if 
it had a soul, as I presume it had, it passed away 
to eternity and to God, and, for aught we know 
to the contrary, was permitted to rehearse to the 
Universal Father, the circumstances by which it 
was so unceremoniously hurried home. But no 
charge was ever preferred against the planter. 
No jury was impanneled to try his case. No 
legal action whatever was ever taken. He was 
a wealthy man, and the child was his own prop- 
erty. 

Another wealthy planter, on the coast, not far 
from New Orleans, was tried by a court, for the 
murder of a slave, one of his own, a small boy, 
six or seven years old. But he had money, and 
he was easily acquitted. To punish one of his 
female domestics, a handsome mulatto woman, for 
her obstinacy in not yielding to his unlawful 
desires, he put her little son in the bake-oven, and 
caused it to be heated to such a degree, that he 
lived but a few minutes, after being extricated. 



144 THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 

That planter is still living ; but as he is a rebel, 
and has gone beyond the lines, into the Confed- 
eracy, I presume his large property has been, or 
will be confiscated. 

A soldier in the regiment, with which I am 
connected, relates that he has been twice cap- 
tured, as a runaway, by bloodhounds. I am not 
aware that any law has ever been enacted, in any 
Slave State, to put a stop to this savage prac- 
tice. There are men who keep hounds, and make 
a business of catching runaways, and are paid so 
much per head. The same soldier mentions the 
case of a slave he knew, who was so lacerated 
and torn by these ferocious animals, before the 
owners could come up with them, that he actu- 
ally died. He himself escaped the same horrible 
fate, only by ascending into a tree, when he found 
that he was about to be caught. Perhaps this 
was not strictly a case of murder, as the killing 
was done by the bloodhounds. But will the 
Author of life hold the bloodhounds responsible, 
for the loss of life in such a case, instead of the 
owners ? Or can the State be considered as guilt- 
less, that tolerates and allows of such a practice ? 

I might easily fill up a volume, by detailing in- 
cidents and facts of this kind. But this is not 



THE VOICk OF BLOOD. 145 

my design, although I would do so, if I considered 
it necessary to aid the cause of humanity, giving 
facts and dates, with the names of parties and 
witnesses. But my purpose has been simply to 
show that the lives of slaves have been almost 
absolutely at the disposal of their owners, and 
the merciless task-masters who had charge of 
them, and that the State legislatures have not af- 
forded them that protection, to which, as subjects 
of God's Government, and a part of the great 
family of man, they were entitled. 

The miserable tyrants are aware of this. They 
know that the African slaves have not been dealt 
with, as if they were men. And, therefore, they 
have adopted a theory in accordance with their 
practice. They affect to believe that they are an 
inferior race of beings, altogether different from 
the white or European race, and not many de- 
grees removed from the baboon tribes, and to be, 
accordingly, treated as other irrational animals. 
This theory was designed as an apology and ex- 
cuse for their inhumanity to their slaves. 

The day of retribution has come at last ! The 
innocent blood that has been shed in this land, 
has not cried so long to Heaven for vengeance, 
in vain I 



146 



XI. 
RACHEL'S LAMENTATION. 

HaekI what voice was that, heard in Rama? 
"The voice of lamentation, and weeping, and 
great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, 
and would not be comforted, because they are 
not." 

Herod, that monster of iniquity, than whom a 
more cruel tyrant never sat on a throne, finding 
that he had been mocked of the wise men, who 
came from the East to worship the Infant Jesus, 
issued a decree that all the children of Bethle- 
hem, and the coasts'^round about, should be put to 
death. Under this bloody edict, some hundreds, 
perhaps several thousands of tender and helpless 
babes, were torn from their mothers' embrace, 
and cruelly slaughtered. 

The intention of the decree, was, to cut oflf the 
infant Saviour, whose advent to the world had 
been proclaimed by angels. I presume not to 



Rachel's lamentation. 147 

decide what share this event may have had in tho 
fearful retribution which fell upon the guilty city 
and capital of the nation, from which that edict 
was issued, seventy years afterwards. But history 
tells us that more than a million of the inhabit- 
ants perished miserably, who were put to the 
sword, or died of famine. During the siege, deli- 
cate females fed on the flesh of their own babes, 
to appease the gnawings of their hunger. 

There is another similar record in history, still 
more ancient, of the wholesale slaughter of young 
children, with the retribution which followed, but 
stated in such terms as to leave no doubt as to 
the connection between the crime and the punish- 
ment. 

The king of Egypt, in order to prevent the too 
rapid increase of the Hebrews, ordered that all 
their male children, should be strangled at their 
birth. How just and striking was the retribution, 
that was visited on the whole land of Egypt! 
The Lord sent a destroying angel, which passed 
over the land, and slew the first-born in every house 
of the Egyptians, from the first-born of the king 
that was heir to the throne, to the first-born of 
the humblest peasant. Here was blood for blood ! 

If the slave-holders in this country, had not, 



148 



every year, destroyed the infant children of their 
slaves, thereby preventing their rapid increase, the 
Africans, would, long ago, have been the ruling 
power in America. The forty millions transported 
from Africa, and brought hither, would certainly 
have outnumbered, two to one, the whole number 
of Europeans who have emigrated to this conti- 
nent. They are known to be a prolific race, and 
I see no reason, why the forty millions should not 
have doubled, at least once, in the course of two 
or three centuries which would have given a popu- 
lation of eighty millions at the present time. But 
instead of this number, there are not over ten 
millions of* Africans in all America. Where are 
the seventy millions? What is the cause of this 
extraordinary decrease ? 

I affirm that a system of infanticide has pre- 
vailed, by which their infants have been annually 
offered up, by tens of thousands, as victims on the 
altar of the slave-god! 

I know that this is a grave charge, to bring 
against slave-holders, and the states that have up- 
held and supported the institution. But I make 
the charge under a full sense of my responsibility, 
and proceed to the proof. 

Every one, who knows any thing of the statis- 



149 



tics of slavery, is aware that in every country, in 
which it has prevailed, the number of deaths have 
exceeded the number of births, among the slave- 
population, except, perhaps, the United States. 
M. Cochin, a French author, asserts, that "it is a 
law of nature, that, in all slave countries, the 
deaths exceed the births." This is a fact, well 
. established, both by official documents and foreign 
statistics. 

At Surinam, from 1839 to 1843, a period of four 
years, five thousand nine hundred slaves were 
born, whilst there were ten thousand four hundred 
who died, or nearly two to one, during the same 
period. 

In the year 1825, the slave-population of Cuba, 
amounted to two hundred and fifty-six thousand. 
But if we accept the calculation of Baron Hum- 
boldt, the whole number of slaves, which had 
been imported into the island from Africa, from 
the beginning of the slave-trade was four hundred 
thirteen thousand five-hundred, so that the number 
of deaths, during that period, exceeded the births 
by one hundred and fifty-seven thousand five hund- 
red. Any country would soon be without an in- 
habitant, at this rate of depopulation. 

It is computed, that, during the last century, 



150 



six hundred thousand slaves were imported into 
Jamaica, yet it is known, that, at the end of that 
century, the slave-population of the whole island, 
amounted to but little more than half the num- 
ber. The deaths exceeded the births by nearly 
three hundred thousand. 

If a census had been taken annually, in our 
own Southern States, showing, not only the in- 
crease in population, white and black, but how 
many slaves had been introduced into each state 
by importation, I would be able to prove, that, 
for the past forty years, in the States of Ala- 
bama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, the 
deaths, among the slaves, have exceeded the 
births, by at least one-third. 

Now, what is the cause of this extraordinary 
mortality? This is no insignificant inquiry. — It 
demands our most serious consideration. — The 
great Judge Himself will require an answer, in 
the Day of final Reckoning — What is the cause? 
For nothing can be more certain, than that there 
is a cause. 

There is a natural and original law of in- 
crease, by which the populations of states and 
countries, are increased in a steady ratio. That 
law was established when God said to the seed 



Rachel's lamentation. 151 

of Adam, " Be fruitful, and multiply, and replen- 
ish the earth." That law is never suspended or 
relaxed by any natural cause. 

We see that the African race is prolific and 
fruitful, in their own native country. We see 
that, in every kingdom and state of Europe, the 
population is steadily advancing in numbers, not- 
withstanding the loss of so many thousands, by 
emigration to other countries. We observe how 
rapidly the white race is multiplying in the sev- 
eral divisions of America. I repeat it, that origi- 
nal law of our Maker, is never reversed nor 
suspended by natural causes. What is the un- 
natural cause, which has reversed it, in the case 
of the slave-population in this country? What 
is it which has killed so many millions of human 
beings, and sent them, prematurely, from time into 
eternity? There is a cause — my God! thou 
knowest what it is! 

It cannot be ascribed to the influence of cli- 
mate. For, how often have slave-holders them- 
selves said tUat the sultry regions of the South 
belong to the slave — that it is the climate most 
congenial and adapted to his nature. One of 
their principal arguments in defense of slavery, 
is founded on this assumption. They assert that 



152 



this fair and sunny realm of the South, so rich 
and productive, must be cultivated by the labor 
of negroes, as the white man cannot live here, 
and labor. It cannot, therefore, be pretended, 
that this extraordinary mortality is the effect of 
climate. The climate is more fatal to the white 
race than to the blacks ; yet everywhere, even in 
the South, the whites have increased in population. 
The cause is not, that, as a race, they have 
lost their virility, or power to propagate, and are 
hence beginning to decay and die out. For it 
has ever been contended that there is not, on 
the face of the earth, a more proliiic people, or 
a generation that multiplies faster. The testi- 
mony, on this point, is unanimous. A distin- 
guished judge, in the Georgia Legislature, said 
several years ago, in a speech: 

" You may take any single slave-holding county 
in the Southern states, in which the great staples 
of cotton and sugar are cultivated to any extent, 
and confine the present slave-population within 
the limits of that county. Such is the rapid 
natural increase of the slaves, and the rapid ex- 
haustion of tlie soil in the cultivation of those 
crops (which add so much to the commercial 
wealth of the country) that, in a few years, it 



Rachel's lamentation. 153 

would be impossible to support them within the 
limits of such county." 

Look at the single fact, that, during the last 
fifteen or twenty years, the great State of Vir- 
ginia has been able to supply not less than twenty- 
five or thirty thousand slaves annually, for the 
market in the cotton and sugar growing regions 
of the -South, and yet there has been no diminution 
of her slave-population at home, but a regular 
and constant increase all the while. Do such facts 
seem to indicate that they are a feeble and de- 
caying race ? 

If then, they have increased and multiplied 
rapidly in their own native land ; if, in the State 
of Virginia, where slavery exists in its mildest 
form, and its rigors are not known, the race has 
been obedient to the great law of nature, originally 
given to man for the propagation of the species, 
what cause has interrupted the natural order of 
things, causing their decrease in Louisiana, Missis- 
sippi, Jamaica, Barbadoes, and other countries, 
where slavery has prevailed, in its more rigid 
forms ? I will' here quote a short extract from 
the works of the celebrated Dr. Samuel Cart- 
wright, one of the most enthusiastic admirers and 
defenders of Southern slavery, who ever raised a 



15i RACHAEL^S LAMENTATION. 

pen in defense of it. Indeed lie had become so 
wedded to the system, and blinded by his preju- 
dices in favor of it, that he could hardly see any 
thing else but arguments in favor of it, and the 
inferiority of the negro race, in any book or sub- 
ject that he studied. His recent death in the rebel 
army, raised for the purpose of battling for the 
institution, proves, at least, the sincerity of his 
zeal in the cause. The quotation is as follows : 

" Nature is no law unto them. They let their 
children suffer and die, or unmercifully abuse them, 
unless the white man or woman prescribe ruled in 
the nursery for them to go by." But why should 
nature be no law unto them ? Are there white 
females in Africa, where they do multiply, to pre- 
scribe rules in the nursery for them to go by? 
Even the she wolf, and every other creature has 
been endowed wilh an instinctive affection for its 
own young. And does the writer pretend to give 
a single fact to prove that the negro mother is 
the only exception to this universal law ? But 
further, he says : 

" Whenever the white woman superintends the 
nursery, whether the climate be cold or hot, They 
increase faster than any other people on the face of 
the globe ; but, on large plaiitations, remote from her 



Rachel's lamentation! 155 

influence, the negro population invariably diminishes^ 
unless the overseer take upon himself those duties, 
in the lying in and nursery department, which, on 
small estates, are attended to by the mistress. 
She often sits up at night with sick children, 
and administers to their wants, when their own 
mothers are nodding by them, and would he sound 
asleep, if it were not for her presence. The care 
that white women bestow on the nursery, is one 
of the principal causes, why three hundred thous- 
and Africans, originally imported into the terri- 
tory of the United States, have increased to four 
millions ; while, in the British West Indies, the 
number imported, exceeded, by several millions, 
the actual population. It is also the cause, why 
the small proprietors of negro property in Mary- 
land, Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, are able to 
supply the loss, on the Southern plantations, which 
are cut off from the happy influence of the presid- 
ing genious over civilization, morality and popu- 
lation — the white woman." 

Now, this brief extract, contains two or three 
admissions, inadvertently made by the writer, 
which go far to account for the rapid decrease 
of the slave-population in certain States and 
countries. 



156 Rachel's lamentation. 

In the first place, it is admitted that, if the 
nursery is properly attended to, the race does 
increase, whether the climate be hot or cold, 
"faster than any other people on tho face of the 
globe." 

Secondly, that, if the nursery is neglected, as 
in the British West Indies, and on large South- 
ern plantations, there is a rapid decrease of the 
population. 

Thirdly, that there is, every year, a loss on 
the large plantations in the South, owing to this 
cause, and that this loss is constantly supplied 
by fresh importations from the more Northern 
Slave States, where the business is followed of 
breeding slaves to supply this waste of life. 

I agree with this earnest and bigoted zealot 
for slavery, as to the cause of this destruction 
of human life, viz. ; the absence of that tender 
care and influence over the nursery, without 
which the human oifspring is not, and cannot 
be reared to maturity. But I canuot agree with 
him, in assigning to the white woman, the sphere 
which the Creator has given the African mother, 
in nursing and rearing her own child. No one 
can properly supply the place, to the helpless in- 
fant, of its own natural mother, notwithstanding 



157 

what the writer so grandiloquently says about 
the happy influence of the white woman, as '' the 
presiding genius, over civilization, morality and 
population." 

That the slave mother is, tyrannically and cruelly, 
denied the privilege of acting the 'part of a nurse to 
her young and delicate babe, on the large plantaticms, 
is what I shall now endeavor to establish. 

It is not true that she is wanting in natural 
affection for her offspring. But she has to be in 
the field, with the other hands, under the overseer, 
almost up to the very moment when she becomes 
a mother. And then again, by the time her babe 
is three weeks old, she has to resume her place 
among the field-hands, and work with the rest 
of the gang, without any interval or respite, ex- 
cept what is allowed her, about twice in the day, 
to return to the quarters to give her infant the 
breast. Has she any chance, under such circum- 
stances, to discharge the duties of maternity ? 
Does she receive the tenderness and care her 
own delicate situation demands? Is there any 
probability that a young and tender babe can 
grow up to maturity, with so little nursing and 
attention ? 

I have heard the remark made, in these States, 



158 



a hundred times, if not oftener, that it is almost 
impossible to bring up young negroes, on the lar- 
ger plantations, which are left exclusively to the 
management of overseers. And I know the re- 
mark to be true, for I have lived many years in 
these States, and have been much on large planta- 
tions in Mississippi, in Louisiana, and in Texas ; 
and I can tell the reasons why the remark is true. 

These large plantations belong to men of wealth. 
They are located, generally, along the margins of 
rivers and bayous, and in the rich and alluvial 
districts, once covered by swamps. There are 
proprietors who own two, three, five, and often as 
many as six or eight of these large plantations 
each, but they do not reside on them with their 
families. They live in Mobile, or Montgomery, or 
Nashville, or Natchez, or some other gay metropo- 
lis, where aristocracy can be seen in all its pomp. 
The plantations, from whence they derive the 
means of spending their days in splendid idleness 
and pleasure, are left solely to the management of 
overseers. 

The business of overseeing, has been at the 
South, a regular and established trade or calling, 
as much so as that of the lawyer, the physician, 
or any other established vocation. The overseer 



Rachel's lamentation. 159 

must, of course, have a reputation for proficiency 
in the business for which he is engaged. And his 
reputation depends on his ability to obtain, from 
the slaves under his management, the largest 
amount of labor possible ! The test of this, is the 
number of bales of cotton or hogsheads of sugar 
he can make in a season, to the hand. There is 
no overseer, who is willing to be surpassed, in this 
respect, by the neighboring overseers. Hence, 
there is a rivalry among them, every season, who 
shall raise the highest number of hogsheads or 
bales, for the force employed. Will they be spar- 
ing in the use of the lash? Can we suppose that 
they would not begin the labor of the day, early 
in the morning, or that they would not leave off 
late in the evening? Seldom does the plantation 
bell ring the signal for turning out for the toils 
of the day, after the first dawn of light, often an 
hour sooner ; and the labor is continued till dark, 
and frequently till nine or ten o'clock in the night. 
Is it probable that the overseer would be likely, 
under such circumstances, to have much regard 
or sympathy for a female slave, in a delicate situa- 
tion? She would scarcely dare to complain to 
him, and if she did, perhaps, she would only be 
driven away to her work, with a kick or a blow, 



160 



by which the womb becomes the grave of her un- 
born child! 

A regular finished overseer, is one who has not 
' in his heart, a particle of feeling or humanity for 
I a negro. This assertion is based on what I have, 
myself, seen and observed everywhere in the 
South. The whip is the badge of their profession 
and the symbol of their office. They have used it 
so long, and excoriated the backs of so many sup- 
pliant men and women, that it is no marvel they 
have become callous, and lost the capacity to feel 
for one who has a dark skin. It is no unusual 
thing, when these overseers are together, to hear 
them, boast of their new and improved modes of 
torture and punishment, for runaways, and other 
delinquents. In brief, I do affirm that there ia 
not a humane person, in the free States, who would 
not entertain a supreme loathing for the wretch, 
who should manifest as little compassion for his 
dumb ox or his horse, as the majority of these 
overseers entertain for the negro. 

And now, what may be supposed to be the state 
of things, on the large plantations, left solely to 
the management of these men? The proprietor, 
with his family, is a hundred, it may be, a thou- 
sand miles away ; and on the plantation, contain- 



161 



ing a population, varying from one to five hun- 
dred human beings, there is not a white person, 
save the overseer. Over that population, he is 
an absolute despot, and rules with a rod of iron. 
They fear him as a tyrant. His word is law to 
them, and from his decision there is no appeal — 
not to the law of the land, of course — not even 
to their own master, for any wrong or outrage 
he may inflict. 0, it is sad to think, that such a 
state of things should exist in a free country — 
should exist in this land of boasted light and 
liberty ! But it has existed long, nevertheless. 

Contemplate, for a moment, this petty tyrant, 
the overseer, in the exercise of the unbounded 
authority committed to him. He knows by what 
tenure he holds his office, and on what the next 
year's salary and employment will depend. The 
main purpose, therefore, by which he is actuated, 
is, to get as much work done as possible, without 
a moment's thought for the comfort or welfare, of 
the miserable slaves. They are divided into two 
or three gangs, and a driver, with whip in hand, 
is stationed to watch each gang. No one is per- 
mitted to lag behind, or to look up from his 
work. They are driven from daylight till after 
dark. The females enceinte, and the mothers icith 



162 



suckling babes, are put in the gangs, and worked 
with the rest. Is it not a system of infanticide? 
Ought it to be considered as a matter of surprise 
that it has been so often remarked, it is impos- 
sible to raise slave children on the large planta- 
tions ! 

In the cotton picking season, they are out in 
the morning, often in the cold dews, when there 
is not a dry rag of clothing on them, till the 
hot sun comes out towards noon, and dries it. 

At Christmas time, it is usual, after the year's 
crop has been gathered and disposed of, to clear 
up and open a new field out of the swamp, and 
get it ready for planting, in the coming spring. 
This is the wet season of the year in the South. 
No matter if it blows rain and sleet, a week at 
a time — no matter if the ground is covered with 
water, ankle or knee deep — the work must go 
on, for it has to be finished within a given 
time. During the planting season, there is no 
time to clear a new field, and it must be done 
in the interval between the gathering of one 
crop, and the planting of anotlier. And this is 
the winter season, the most inclement of the 
year, wlien no white man would think of going 
into the swamp or marshes, and chopping timber 



163 

for weeks together, in the water and rain. He 
would choose the summer season for the purpose, 
when the sun has dried the earth, and there is 
no exposure, consequently, of life and health. But 
this is the busiest season of the year, when the 
slaves are in the crop, and cannot be spared for 
clearing new lands. This fact may serve to 
throw light on the mysterious cause of negro 
consumption, so prevalent in some districts, and 
also, explain why it is, that, on nearly every large 
plantation, there may be found, at any time, a 
number of the helpless and hopeless victims of 
rheumatism, unable to walk or drag their slow 
limbs along, who must just linger on a few more 
miserable days, and then die. The women go 
into the swamp, and chop and clear away the 
timber, the same as the men. There is no distinc- 
tion in this respect. Can we feel surprise that 
their babes perish in the womb, or as soon as they 
have seen the light? The question ought to come 
home to the conscience of this enlightened nation, 
could it be expected that females, treated thus, 
anywhere in the world, should be mothers — should 
bear children, and not bury them ! 

The advocate of the system, may find a salvo 
for his conscience, and frame a falsehood with 



164 



his lips* by saying, in palliation of liis guilt, that 
the African mother has no natural affection for 
her own offspring. But this would be only to 
place the blame at the door of the Great Crea- 
tor Himself. If she is destitute of natural affec- 
tion, it is because it has been crushed out of her 
heart by oppression ; for it is a natural instinct 
-with which God has endowed all females for 
their young, for the preservation of the species. 

The Parliament of England, after long years, 
aroused by the appeals of some of her philan- 
thropic statesmen, saw the horrors of the system 
and abolished it, in her West India colonies. 
Would it not have been a glorious thing if these 
United States had been included, for the moment, 
in the number of her colonies? At least, we 
should have been spared the horrors of this frat- 
ricidal war ! 

And now I ask, have I not established the 
charge, stated near the commencement of this 
cliapter, viz. : that the principal cause of the rapid 
decrease of the slave-population, in all countries 
where slavery has existed in its rigors, was ow- 
ing to the fact, that their infant children have 
been sacrificed annually, by tens of thousands, on 
the altar of the slave-^rod? True, the tyrants did 



Rachel's lamentatioiT. 165 

not order them to be strangled, at their birth. 
True, they were not, under the influence of pajjan 
superstition, cast into the Ganges, or some other 
sacred stream, to feed the hungry crocodile. But, 
sacrificed under a system not less cruel and re- 
volting than that ancient system of Paganism, 
their miniature graves are scattered, by hundreds 
of thousands, along the margins of the Mississippi, 
the Arkansas, the Brazos, and other streams now- 
become as sacred as the Ganges. A great monu- 
ment will be erected over those graves. At all 
events, a page will be written in history showing 
that their slaughter was avenged by the armies of 
the Republic, employed and commissioned as God's 
destroying angel, in the destruction of the First- 
born of the oppressors ! 

If there be a future life, how will these latter, 
confront the myriads of souls thus wronged and 
cheated out of existence ? 0, is there not a cry 
that has been going up to Heaven from those 
millions of little graves, scattered all over the 
South, against the nation that permitted this system 
of wrong ! Can we wonder that the hour of 
atonement has come ! God is Just ! " Great and 
marvellous are thy works ; just and true are thy 
ways, thou King of Saints !" 



166 



XII. 
ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 

Slave-holders have ofeen protested against the 
charge, which stands at the head of this chapter. 
But all their protests and arguments can avail 
nothing, so long as stubborn facts confront them, 
which remain unanswered. 

It would indeed be difficult, nay, impossible to 
imagine a state of the total enslavement of the 
body, which should not involve the enslavement of 
the soul or intellect. And all the arguments 
employed to prove the contrary, are utterly futile 
and void. 

For one man to assert a claim of property — 
of absolute ownership in the very soul and intel- 
lect of another, is so revolting to universal reason, 
that even the stanchest advocate of slavery, stag- 
gers appalled at the thought of such treason 
against Heaven, and makes a feeble but ineffectual 
attempt, to repel the charge. 

The system of slavery that has prevailed at the 



ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 167 

South, debased the soul of man, and fettered the 
intellect, at the same time that it bound and fet- 
tered his limbs. To meet and obviate this objec- 
tion, the more recent defenders of the system, 
have taken the milder position — that, of the 
right of property in the life-time service of the 
slave ; whilst they disclaim the right of property 
in his soul, or his person. This, however, is a 
mere subterfuge, designed to remove from it, the 
odium inseparable from the idea of one man's 
holding his fellow-man as his property. 

Let us look at the claim of the slave-holder, 
as stated in this milder form of expression. The 
Declaration of Independence, penned by the im- 
mortal Jefferson, asserts that " all men are created 
free and equal." It asserts, moreover, that all 
men were endowed with " certain inalienable 
rights, among which are life, liberty and the pur- 
suit of happiness." 

If this declaration is true, then the pursuit of 
happiness is one of the inalienable rights of all 
men. If the African is a man, the "pursuit of 
happiness" is a natural and ''inalienable right,^^ 
which belongs to him as well as to all other men. 
If he is not a man, it devolves on the advocates 
of slavery, to prove that he is not. 



168 ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND, 

But the slave-holder claims an absolute right 
of property in the life-time service of the slave. 
Now, the two rights, that of the master, and that 
of the slave, are irreconcilably in conflict, the one 
with the other. The one destroys the other. 

For example, suppose that the inalienable right 
of the slave to the pursuit of happiness, should 
prompt him to put himself under a teacher, a few 
hours each day, for the purpose of being able to 
read the great and Blessed Volume of God's Truth, 
and of improving himself in knowledge generally ; 
would not the master be compelled to relinquish 
his absolute right to the service of that slave, at 
least for the time thus daily spent by him in the 
pursuit of knowledge, and the improvement of his 
mind? 

Or, suppose again, that, in the exercise of this 
" inalienable right^^ " the pursuit of happijiess" the 
slave should express a desire to dwell with his own 
wife and family — If this right is acknowledged 
and maintained, what becomes of the master's 
right to sell him, or any of his family, thus separa- 
ting them, perhaps, for life ? 

We see, therefore, that the right set up by the 
slave-holder, when expressed in its very mildest 
form, is totally opposed to the exercise of that 



ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 169 

^^inalienable right, the pursuit of happiness," which 
Jefferson asserted, is the gift and birthright of all 
Tnen. 

We must, therefore, conclude, either that the 
African is not a man, or, that the statement in 
that memorable Declaration is not true, or, that 
the claim of the slave-holder is a fallacy. Which 
shall we conclude ? 

We cannot, certainly, conclude that the African 
is not a man, at least, till some advocate of slav- 
ery, bolder than his fellows, shall undertake se- 
riously to prove that he is not a man. This, I 
believe, has never yet been done. An^ while they 
admit, without dissent, that the slave is a man, 
though with a dark skin, we may rest safe in the 
conclusion that he is a man. 

In the next place, we may not, and further I 
say, we dare not conclude that the Author of our 
existence ever created any man without designing 
his happiness, and endowing him with an inaliena- 
ble right to seek his happiness. This proposition 
is so clear that I have never known any slave- 
holder, or any advocate of the system to deny it. 
It is not only an inalienable right that belongs to 
all men, but is placed by Jefferson among the 
truths which are self-evident. To deny it, there- 



170 ENSLAVEMENT OP THE MIND. 

fore, would be, in fact to insult the reason, and 
the enlightened conscience of universal mankind. 

There is out one conclusion remaining, and that 
is, that the right of property to the life-long ser- 
vice of the slave, is a fallacy, having no founda- 
tion whatever in the eternal principles of right 
and rectitude ; since, as we have seen, this claim 
destroys the inalienable right of the slave to the 
pursuit of happiness, and is wholly in conflict with 
it. 

But now, let us examine this pretended claim of 
the slave-holder. He claims the right — the abso- 
lute right of property in the service of his slave, 
as long as he lives ; but this claim, he argues, 
does not necessarily involve the enslavement of 
his soul, or his intellect. But this reasoning is 
self-contradictory and absurd, — let us see : 

The services of a slave would be worthless to 
the master, without a sound and healthy body, 
able to render service. Besides, no service could 
be obtained from the sound and healthy body of 
the slave, without the consent and co-operation of 
the mind or soul, that controls all the motions 
and actions of his own body. It is vain to speak 
of separating the soul and body of a man, until 
death has effected a separation. They are so 



ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 171 

united, that they are a unit in this life, at least, 
and the body cannot act without the soul, nor the 
soul without the body. The master, who controls 
the body of his slave, in exacting service from 
him, does, so far control his soul, or his intellect. 
And he can exact no service from his slave, till 
the latter has first abandoned all freedom of will. 
His will must be so far brought into subjection to 
the will of the master, as to consent to be governed 
by him — to will what he wills — and to move all the 
muscles and limbs of his own body, as he, the 
master shall dictate. Is there no enslavement of 
the mind, — the soul in this? Can a more misera- 
ble and abject state of bondage be conceived of? 
But let us see how the theory operates when 
carried out into practice. — The master has a cot- 
ton plantation, and it is his pleasure that the 
slave shall till and work that plantation, in the 
growth of cotton. Has the slave any freedom or 
liberty of choice ? Though he should prefer some 
other employment — some other mode of life — 
though he should judge a life spent in a cotton 
field, and in clearing swamps, to be destructive 
of life and health, and subversive of all his 
hopes of pleasure and happiness in this world, 
has he any option? Must he not bend his will, 



172 ENSLAVEMENT OP THE MIND. 

however reluctantly, into absolute submission to the 
vill of his lord? Yea, he must go, and sweat, 
and toil, and die at last, on the cotton farm, be- 
cause the master vnlled it ! 

I might continue this chain of thought, almost 
indefinitely ; but there is not space, nor do I find 
any necessity. There is, however, one phase, in 
this mental enthralment, which I must not, and 
will not omit to notice in this connection. I 
refer now to the Legislation, in most of the states 
and countries, where slavery has existed, for the 
express purpose of preventing the intellectual im- 
provement of their slaves, and of keeping them 
down in a state of mental darkness and igno- 
rance. This is a feature in African slavery, 
J which, for blackness of guilt, finds no parallel in 
any ancient form of slavery the world has known. 

If, to resolve that your slave shall be kept in 
ignorance — If, to enact laws for the purpose of 
keeping him in ignorance — And if, to exercise 
vigilance in the execution of those laws, does not 
involve the absolute and utter enslavement of the 
soul, then tell me what is meant by the enslave- 
ment of the mind of man, or how it would be 
possible to fetter and bind a human soul! 

But has the God of the spirits of all flesh, 



ENSLAVKMENT OF THE MIND. 173 

ever delegated authority to any human being, 
thus to impose shackles on the immortal mind, 
and to bind it down in chains of darkness ? 

Go, visit one of the large plantations, up the 
Red River, or the Arkansas, with a population of 
two or three hundred slaves. Search every hut, 
and you will not find a book, a pamphlet, or 
even a newspaper — not a single trace or sign 
of education in one of them. Not one of them 
can read a single letter in the book. There is 
no Holy Bible, no Testament, not even a religious 
tract in any of their dwellings. That plantation 
is, in fact, a dungeon of darkness, and its occu- 
pants are prisoners of darkness! The chains on 
their souls, have been rivetted by law ! Now, if 
God has endowed man with intellectual faculties, 
for the purpose of being improved in obtaining 
the knowledge of Himself, through his works, and 
through his "Word, who has the right to say to 
his fellow-man, that he shall not employ those 
faculties as God designed they should be em- 
ployed ? 

Look again, on that plantation, and into that 
dungeon of darkness. — You will there see two or 
three hundred souls, with noble intellects, it is 
true, and faculties of a high ordet, such as God 



174 ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 

endowed them with. But have those intellects 
been expanded, and improved, and developed by 
education? Have they been permitted to know 
God, by the diligent study of his works and of 
his Word? Have they had any chance or oppor- 
tunity, to receive that mental culture and train- 
ing, so essential to the highest happiness of man, 
and which, we may say, was the end for which 
every man was created? 

Suppose I should ask the Christian master, do 
you believe that your slave is a man? — that he 
is endowed with intellectual faculties ? — that he 
has a soul ? He would be compelled to answer 
in the affirmative. Do you believe that the cul- 
ture and improvement of those faculties, by edu- 
cation, is essential to the highest dignity and hap- 
piness of man? He would likewise be compelled 
to answer, yea. And further, do you believe that, 
when the Creator thus endowed man with such 
noble powers, it was with the intention, that he 
sliould exercise and improve those gifts, and 
aspire to the highest dignity, and the highest 
degree of happiness of which his nature is capa- 
ble? Could he say, nay? 

But what has slavery done ? It has taken away 
the key of knowledge — it has suppressed every 



ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 175 

high and noble aspiration of the soul — it has, 
by legislative enactments, stationed armed senti- 
nels at the gates of the temple of science, to pre- 
vent the slave-man from entering therein ; lest he 
should attain to that state of intellectual dignity 
and excellence, which is the ultimate end for 
which God created him, for His own glory! 

Yea, this is the kind of legislation which has 
been tolerated in this Christian land — this land 
of boasted freedom, education, and equality I 
Surely, it was time that this state of things 
should have a termination. The end has come, 
but not in the way that we looked for! God's 
ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as 
our thoughts ! 



176 



XIII. 
BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 

To assert that, during the last twenty years, 
two millions of slaves have been imported and 
sold in the sugar and cotton-growing States, from 
the more Northern Slave States, would be rather 
under than over a correct estimate. It may truly 
be said, that, the passion for buying negroes, 
amounted to a mania. It might be called the 
Jfiggermania. It was, in fact, a disease — And I 
have never known a disease, that was more con- 
tagious in its nature, or that prevailed to such 
an alarming extent. But there is nothing sur- 
prising in this circumstance, when it is known 
that almost every man's political and social stand- 
ing in the community, was estimated by the num- 
ber of slaves which he owned. 

The planters of the South liave acquired an un- 
enviable reputation, as it is well known, for run- 
ning headlong into debt. The reason of this was, 



BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 177 

that every planter was willing, not only to ex- 
pend his whole income, over and above the actual 
expenses of his plantation, in the purchase of 
slaves, but to buy as many more, in addition, as 
he could obtain on credit. For example, if a 
small planter, with a force of ten or twelve hands, 
his cotton crop would probably net him (I speak 
of the times just before the war) about five thou- 
sand dollars, of which sum, the actual cash ex- 
pense of his plantation, if he were economical, 
would not be over fifteen hundred dollars. The 
balance he would be sure to lay out in the pur- 
chase of negroes. Thirty-five hundred dollars 
would, in those times, now past and gone to re- 
turn not again, purchase three or four likely 
negroes. But, in addition, he would be sure to 
purchase two or three more, on credit, relying on 
the proceeds of the next crop, to make the pay- 
ment. Thus, every thing they could make, was 
expended in the purchase of negroes. The major- 
ity of them, even lived poor, and stinted them- 
selves and their families, in many of the com- 
forts of life, that they might have the more money 
to buy negroes. And still they were always in 
debt for the purchase of negroes. They raised 
cotton, and they raised sugar, but only as a 



178 BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 

means to enable them to buy negroes — more ne- 
groes. They never could buy enough of them. 

To meet this great and ever increasing demand 
for negroes, there was not a town, of any size, and 
hardly a village, in any of these states, where 
there was not a slave-mart, open day and night, 
at all seasons of the year. At these marts, scores 
and hundreds of men, women, and children of all 
colors, from a jet black, to the lightest complexion, 
that could hardly be distinguished from the fairest 
Circassian, were kept constantly on hand, for sale. 
Almost every day, gentlemen, from the city and 
country, and sometimes from other states, visited 
these markets for the "purpose of examining the 
stock of animals for sale, with a view to purchase. 
Not unfrequently, old bachelor planters and mer- 
chants visited these marts, to purchase a wife or a 
mistress, provided they could find one to please 
them. Every one, who is at all familiar with the 
working of the system, is aware, that, some of the 
most beautiful women, and young girls, have been 
thus exposed to sale, at these numerous marts, and 
for the purpose designated ; many of whom, on 
account of their light complexion, could scarcely 
have been distinguished from the white Creole girls 
of Louisiana, but for the clear, dark, and lustrous 



BREEDING SLATES FOR MARKET. 179 

eye, denoting the taint of xVfrican blood in their 
veins. 

Out of this state of things, an important traffic 
grew up, denominated the domestic slave-trade. In 
carrying on this traffic, negro-traders were the 
merchants. Owing to the great and increasing 
demand for slave-property, this traffic soon attained 
to a high degree of importance. A numerous class 
of men applied themselves diligently to the busi- 
ness for years, as their sole occupation, and none 
made fortunes more rapidly than they. Not a few 
of them became millionaires. I have in my mind 
now, one who thus acquired a property of nearly 
two millions, and then when he was fifty, married 
one of the most beautiful and accomplished young 
ladies in Tennessee, the daughter of a clergyman ; 
which shows that the character of a negro-trader, 
was not held in quite so much odium at the South, 
as in other, perhaps, less civilized districts. 

The greater number of the slaves, thus trans- 
ported, from year to year, from one to another 
distant State, and sold to new masters, were fur- 
nished by Virginia, and the two Carolinas. Mary- 
land, Kentucky and Missouri each furnished a 
few, but not the tithe of what were furnished 
by the first three named, which may therefore, 



180 BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 

without any injustice, be termed slave-breeding- 
States. 

Much of the land in those States had become 
almost valueless, from long tillage, by slave labor. 
This is one of the effects of slavery. The soil 
itself seems to experience the curse. The land 
gradually wears out in a few years, and becomes 
utterly worthless. The traveler, journeying through 
any of those older States, may often see extensive 
fields turned out, as waste and barren lands, so 
naked and bare of soil, and so exhausted, that 
not even weeds will grow on them. 

There is many a planter in South Carolina and 
Georgia, who does not make over one or two 
bales of cotton to the hand, on account of the 
exhausted state of the soil ; whereas, if he were 
in Mississippi or Texas, he could raise ten or 
twelve bales per hand. Slave property was, 
therefore, becoming almost valueless, for agricul- 
tural purposes, in several of the States ; and the 
owners of slaves had either to emigrate to some 
new State, or turn their attention to some new 
enterprise. The Domestic Slave Trade sprung up 
just at the favorable juncture, to meet this ne- 
cessity. And many of tliose who did not choose 
to emigrate to the newer States, taking their slave 



BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 181 

property with them, at once entered on this new 
and lucrative business of breeding slaves for 
market. 

The great State of Virginia stands first and 
uppermost, in the list of slave-breeding States — 
"Virginia, a name become venerable with sacred 
memories, as the mother of Presidents, — as the 
birth-place of Washington, Jefferson, and other 
eminent statesmen and orators, the noblest bene- 
factors of the country. What a stain upon the 
bright record that might have been hers! How 
severely has the scourge of God come down on 
her soil, for her iniquity ! 

One of the wisest and most profound European 
statesmen of modern times, expressed his opinion 
of the practice of breeding slaves for sale, in 
the following strong and characteristic language: 
" The breeding of slaves for sale is, probably, the 
most immoral and debasing practice ever known 
in the world. It is a crime of the most hideous 
kind, and if there were no other crime committed 
by the Americans, this alone would place the ad- 
vocates and supporters of American slavery, in 
the lowest grade of criminals." 

Thus wrote Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish 
patriot, 'par excellence, a man of a towering Intel- 



182 BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 

lect, and commanding genius, whose very name 
adds lustre to his country. He was in a position 
where he could view slavery from a stand-point, 
uninfluenced by self-interest and the prejudices of 
education ; and, therefore, his opinion outweighs 
all that Southern writers and Southern divines 
have said and written on the other side. 

It is not to be denied that this horrid prac- 
tice has caused our whole nation to be despised 
by the civilized world. Another foreign writer, 
M. Cochin, a Frenchman, uses the following lan- 
guage in reference to the practice of breeding 
slaves, for sale : " What shall we say of that 
abominable fact, — negro-raising ? It is well known 
that, among horses and cows, a fine stallion suffices 
for a drove. Some slave-holders have, in the same 
manner, one sire to several mothers ; and the 
methods for raising the bovine and equine races 
are now brought into use for the human race, on 
the soil of liberty." 

Such charges made against a great and Chris- 
tian nation, by some of the most enlightened for- 
eigners and journalists, cannot be answered by a 
witticism or a contemptuous sneer. There is so 
much of truth and justice in the charges pre- 
ferred, that, unfortunately, we cannot vindicate 



BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 183 

the honor of the nation, against those who make 
them. 

Some of the best families, in the older slave- 
states, revel in all the luxuries of wealth and 
affluence, from the profits derived from slave-breed- 
ing ! They keep the young and healthy breeding 
women, and men enough to suffice for the purpose 
of sires, and sell the rest to the traders, who con- 
stantly traverse those states to buy up that spe- 
cies of property, with a view to transport them 
to another market. The process is very like that 
of the farmers in Kentucky and Tennessee, who 
raise mules and horses, to be sold in the states 
further South. The practice must strike every 
reflecting mind, on the very first blush, as revolt- 
ing to every dictate of humanity, as demoralizing, 
in its effects, both on the slave and white popu- 
lations, and as a crime against God. 

To speak only of its effect, in sundering the 
ties of consanguinity, as the last writer quoted, 
truly says : " the husband is thus wrested, from 
his wife, the mother from her infant, the aged 
father from his son ! This montrous, daily, inevit- 
able consequence, the separation of the family, is, 
in itself alone, to every man of heart, the con- 
demnation beyond appeal of slavery. Ah ! our 



184 BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 

hearts are rent with the thought that death may 
suddenly snatch us from our wife or child! 
What would it be, if it were necessary, every 
morning, to ask, is my child sold ? Has my wife 
been carried away ? The stories of Mrs. Stowe, 
are only the skillful and touching delineations of 
these separations, the threat of which, always sus- 
pended, weighs on all the joys of the unhappy 



185 



XIY. 
THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 

The marriage relationship was originally es- 
tablished by God. There is no diversity of views 
on this subject, at least, in the christian world, 
whatever dilfferences of opinion may exist in re- 
gard to slavery. 

The imion that exists between husband and 
wife, was ordained in the beginning, by the Great 
Author of our being, and is, therefore, to all in- 
tents and purposes, a sacred and indissoluble 
relationship. All doubts on this point, if there 
could be any, is taken away by that inspired and 
authoritative declaration, " whom God hath joined 
together, let not man put asunder." 

The intimacy and closeness of this relationship, 
is expressed, in that original ordinance, when 
marriage was instituted, contained in the 2nd. 
Chapter of Genesis, "Therefore, shall a man 
leave his father and his mother, and cleave unto 
his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh." 



186 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 

The law of marriage is palpably written in the 
physical constitution of man, and in the deep-felt 
necessities of his nature. In the same connection 
where it is written, " God created man in his own 
image, in the image of God, created he him " — 
we find it also written ; " male and female created 
he themr 

In all ages of the church, the saints have re- 
garded the marriage institution as of divine ap- 
pointment, and the obligations, growing out of it, 
as possessing a sacred and religious character. 
" Let the same he she that thou hast appointed for 
thy servant Isaac^ This was the prayer of the 
venerable and pious servant of Abraham, whom 
he had made ruler over all that he had, when he 
was sent to obtain, from among Abraham's kin- 
dred, a wife for his son Isaac. This is explicit 
testimony as to what was the opinion held by the 
saints of patriarchal times. 

Though this divine law of marriage, like every 
other law of God, has been violated, and corrupt- 
ed, and trampled down in many ways, yet, it 
is wonderful to observe how a mysterious and 
special Providence has been exercised, in every 
age and country, to maintain and perpetuate that 
law. For it has not been blotted out. It could 



THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 187 

not be, without tlie destruction of man's physical 
and social being. He was originally created 
" male and female^ They are born into the world 
^^ male and femaW'' still. The man cannot do 
without the woman, nor the woman without the 
man. 

There is an exact equality of the sexes born. 
This is a curious physiological fact, in the history 
of the race. We know of no physical necessity 
in the constitution of man, by which this gen- 
eral result should be secured. It is certain, that, 
while in some families, ail the births are males, 
in others again, all the births are females. And 
we can assign no reason or necessary cause, why 
it might not happen that all the births in a whole 
nation J should be, either all males, or all females, 
as well as in individual families. But, if such a 
contingency should ever happen, the existence of 
that nation would, of course, be suddenly ter- 
minated. Or, if in any nation or country, the 
sexes were born in disproportionate numbers — if, 
for example, in Utah Territory, or any other king- 
dom or territory, only a fourth part of the births 
were males, and the other three-fourths were fe- 
males, we should conclude that it was the Will 
of the Divine Being, that polygamy should pre- 



188 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 

Tail in that kingdom or country, inasmuch as 
nature had provided only one husband for three 
women. But, as there is born, in every king- 
dom and country throughout the whole world, 
just an equal number of males and females, we 
are impressed with the belief, that there is a 
Special and Overruling Providence, which has 
maintained and preserved this remarkable equal- 
ity between the sexes, thus securing to every man 
his wife, and to every woman her husband, and 
making the original creation of male and female, 
a perpetual and ever renewed creation. 

So much for the divinity and sacred character 
of the marriage relationship. It is, further, essen- 
tial to human felicity. The cup of man's earthly 
bliss would lose one-half its sweetness, if this in- 
gredient were wanting. Even the joy of Eden 
was not perfect, till God had formed a help-meet 
for man. The Creator saw, and he said, that, 
" it is not good that the man should be aloneJ^ 
And we may suppose, that, when Adam awaked 
out of his sleep to find a female form, of angelic 
loveliness, as a bosom companion nestling by his 
side, he felt that the measure of his happiness 
was complete. 

In the present state of the world, the pilgrim- 



THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 189 

age of man on earth, would be sad and dreary 
indeed, were it not that sin has not entirely 
thrown down the marriage altar, nor made utter- 
ly desolate the family circle. Universal as are 
the ruins of the fall, and as much as the beauty 
of creation has been marred by sin, there is still 
something of domestic bliss left to man. The 
purest, and the most unalloyed pleasure which 
has come down from Eden, is that which is 
found in the union between two congenial 
hearts, whom God has formed for each other, 
and which have been united together, in a life- 
long destiny. The world may seem cold and 
cheerless— adversity may be his lot — but still the 
man who is thus blest, may find a ray of com- 
fort around his own family altar, in the society 
of the sympathetic and loving being, whom God 
has given him to double the joys of life, and 
divide its sorrows. 

African slavery is in direct opposition to this 
law of Heaven. It has thrown down the marriage 
altar ! It has introduced a system of promiscuous 
concubinage, and wide spread fornication in the 
place of it, in all the States where it has pre- 
vailed. 

I am aware, that the upholders of the system 



190 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 

manifest some sensitiveness under this charge. 
But they scarcely undertake to make any self- 
defense against it. The most they attempt, is, to 
retort on those who make the charge, by point- 
ing to the lax state of morals in the Free States ; 
as if the crimes of individuals, in any country, 
could be offered in extenuation of a legalized 
system of iniquity, on the part of a whole State. 
The domestic slave-trade, which has been sanc- 
tioned and legalized in most of the Southern 
States, resulted, as it might have been foreseen, 
in a state of concubinage and whoredom so gene- 
ral, and I may even say, so popular, that custom 
has established it as a peculiar system of the 
South, as much so as slavery itself! For I do 
not believe that there is any other civilized coun- 
try, at least where the female is not looked upon 
as a degraded and fallen creature, who has lost 
her virtue. But there is no colored woman in 
the Slave-States, who thinks less of herself, or is 
less esteemed by others, because of the want of 
female virtue. But, on the contrary, if she is the 
mistress of a white man, she tliinks herself ele- 
vated by the connection, and is envied by her 
female friends. Nor is the fine and polished gen- 
tleman of the South, who keeps his colored mis- 



THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 191 

tress, degraded in the eyes of his acquaintances, 
either male or female, nor his name cast out. It 
is notorious, that we once had a Vice President, 
from the South, who kept his colored mistress — 
but that circumstance did not injure his popular- 
ity at home. 

Let me not be considered as a defamer of 
Southern institutions. I speak concerning a state 
of things which I know to exist. For the pur- 
pose of corroborating my testimony, I will here 
quote an extract from the writings of Chancellor 
Harper, whose testimony will be received as un- 
questionable ; for he was a Southern gentleman, 
a native of South Carolina, and one of their 
ablest defenders of slavery. He says : 

" She is not less a useful member of society, 
than before. If shame be attached to her conduct, 
it is such shame as would, elsewhere, be regarded 
as a venial impropriety — She has not impaired 
her means of support, nor materially impaired her 
character, or lowered her station in society ; for 
she has done no great injury to herself, or any 
other human being. Her offspring is not a bur- 
den, but an acquisition to her owner ; her support 
is provided for, and he is brought up to useful- 
ness ; if the fruit of intercourse with a free man, 



192 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 

his condition is, perhaps, raised somewhat above 
that of his mother. Under these circumstances, 
with imperfect knowledge, tempted by the stron- 
gest of human passions, unrestrained by the mo- 
tives which operate to restrain, but which are so 
often found insufficient to restrain the conduct of 
females elsewhere, can it be a matter of surprise, 
that she should so often yield to the temptation ? 
Is not the evil less in itself, and in reference to 
society — much less in the sight of God and man? 
As was said of theft, the want of chastity, which, 
among females of other countries, is sometimes 
vice, sometimes crime — among the free of our own, 
much more aggravated — among slaves, hardly de- 
serves a harsher term than that of weakness." 

Here, we have a shameless and unblushing 
apology for this almost universal and even popular 
system of prostitution, among the slave popula- 
tion of these States, by one of the most distin- 
guished writers of South Carolina, and a firm 
defender of slavery. He admits that the female 
slave, who has parted with her chastity, has but, 
at most, committed a "venial impropriety,^^ which 
hardly deserves a harsher term than that of 
*' weakness " — that she has not injured " herself nor 
any other human being ^^ — that she has* "not ma- 



193 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 

terially impaired her character, nor lowered her 
station in society " — that her offspring is " an ac- 
quisition to her owner," who will be provided for, 
and if the fi'uit of intercourse with a free man, 
his condition will be raised " somewhat above that 
of his mother," &c. The facts are all just as the 
writer admits — And this is the state of public sen- 
timent, and the state of morals that exists, and 
that has existed throughout the South. But, that 
which may well excite our astonishment, is the 
fact, that there should be found, even at the South, 
an intelligent and educated gentleman, willing to 
justify this state of things. 

But it cannot be helped. It is a condition in- 
separable from slavery. It has been forced upon the 
enslaved and helpless population, and they have 
not the power to resist it. The laws of slavery, 
and the laws of the States that legalize it, have 
forced it upon them. 

In the first place, they have done this by 
legalizing the Domestic Slave-Trade, whereby the 
rights and obligations of the marriage relationship 
are annulled, and husbands are forcibly separated 
from their wives, and wives from their husbands. 
See how. the system works in a Slave-breeding 
State, where, on many a plantation, may be found, 



194 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 

perhaps twenty or thirty young and healthy slave 
women, kept to breed and raise children for the 
market — but in all probability, there are not over 
five or six slave men on the same plantation. It 
would be out of the question for the master who 
follows slave-breeding, to afford a husband for 
each woman. And, of course, it would be im- 
possible for each woman to have a husband. Is 
not the marriage altar thrown down ? Is it 
rational to suppose that the enslaved, kept in ig- 
norance under such a system, should be able to 
recognize the sacredness of the obligations grow- 
ing out of the institution ? 

The traffic in slaves, in the second place, has 
annulled the ordinance of God, by taking away 
from the slave, the only incentive existing, that 
could induce him to assume the obligations im- 
posed by that ordinance. He may be separated 
from his wife, the very next day after marriage, 
and so may the slave-woman be separated from 
her husband, never to meet again. They are liable 
to be sold and separated, at any moment. And 
would they be disposed to enter into such sacred 
relationships — would they form such endearing and 
tender ties, — only to experience the pain of hav- 
ing them sundered again, so suddenly ahd ruth- 



THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 195 

lessly ? There is no people on earth, who would 
do it, under the same circumstances. The mar- 
riage altar would necessarily fall into disrepute. 
But the crime belongs to Slavery. 

Another way, in which slavery has im- 
paired the obligations of the marriage relation- 
ship at the South, is, in the facilities it has 
afforded to corrupt men, for indulging their un- 
bridled passions. A licentious planter, or over- 
seer, might buy a mistress, at any time. She 
must go to his home. She is his property. — 
She is unprotected, and entirely in his power. 
— She has not the disposal of her own body 
or person. The fact is, it was just as easy to 
have a harem on a large Southern plantation, 
or even in a city like New Orleans or Charles- 
ton, as to have one in Turkey, provided the 
old rake of a planter or merchant, took a 
fancy to have two or three, or more beautiful 
and bright-eyed mulattos, about his bachelor 
establishment. Indeed, it might be said that, 
as a general rule, the female part of the pop- 
ulation on a plantation, constituted the harem 
of the overseer. For no one would dare to 
resist his importunity. And that, as a general 



196 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 

thing, the overseers at the South, did take 
advantage of their situation, and make"ac^wm- 
tions^^ to their employers, is apparent from the 
many living proofs, which may be seen on almost 
every plantation. 

Need any thing more be added, to set forth 
the horrors of slavery ? In utterly casting down 
the marriage altar, it made war upon one of 
the institutions of Heaven, and that, too, the 
one in which nearly all the heart-felt sympathies 
and endearments of life, which this world affords, 
were concentrated. 

Christian philanthropists will have a work 
before them, when this war is over, and slavery 
shall have passed away, in restoring that altar 
to its primeval place, and in erecting the 
standard of a pure morality among the slave 
population. This will be a work of time. It 
cannot be accomplished in a day. The social 
habits and sentiments of a numerous popula- 
tion cannot be suddenly changed. But this de- 
sirable reformation can be effected, by a proper 
effort, in a very few years. For there is not 
a more docile people on the face of the earth, 
than the colored race, nor one, apparently, more 



THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 197 

willing and even anxious to make improvement, 
in all that pertains to their spiritual and moral 
welfare. It is to be hoped, that this wide field 
for missionary enterprise, now thrown open, may 
be speedily and thoroughly occupied. 



198 



XY. 

THE PROCLAMATION. 

There has been no Presidential term of four 
years, since this nation became a Republic, that 
will be so distinguished in future history, by great 
and memorable events, as the first four years of 
Mr. Lincoln's Presidential Supremacy. But the 
great act of his life, will be that, in which ho 
subscribed his name to the document which loosed 
the chains of slavery, and gave liberty to millions 
who were held in bondage. That act not only 
gave freedom to four millions of the enslaved 
children of Africa, but it cleared away from the 
escutcheon of our nation's proud fame, the only 
dark spot that had rested upon it, and assigned, 
at once, to the great Republic, that position in 
the fore-front of nations, to which it was justly 
entitled, and which will be maintained, under the 
guidance and smiles of a propitious Providence, 
through all the coming years. That great hin- 



THE PROCLAMATION. 199 

drance to our national prosperity having been 
removed, we may expect the country from this 
date, not only to advance in a career of uninter- 
rupted prosperity, but to have the distinguished 
honor of being the pioneer nation in the cause 
of fi'cedom and humanity, to all other nations. 
She could not fairly, lay claim to this enviable 
distinction, which, nevertheless, fate had willed to 
her, while so many of her people were held in a 
state of bondage. Now, she can assert her claim, 
and now, go forward, without let or hindrance, in 
the fulfillment of her grand mission. 

From this day, the soil of America, is a soil 
consecrated to freedom. A soil baptized, again 
and again, with the blood of the free, should be 
the home of the free, and the free alone. No 
more, ! no more, let the turf once reddened by 
freedom's costly offering, be pressed by the foot of 
a slave ! Never more, in this land, now and for- 
ever redeemed, let the cry of a slave be heard, as 
he looks forth from the cell of his captivity, and 
utters his fruitless sighs for freedom ! Countr}^- 
men of Washington ! Descendents of the pil- 
grims ! let us, without a dissenting voice, approach 
our country's altar, and there record our vows that 
wo will be true and loyal to freedom's cause ! 



200 THE PROCLAMATION. 

The first day of January, 1863, will be cele- 
brated by posterity, as the day when the sun of 
America, first shone forth with an unclouded splen- 
dor. That sun arose amid the storms of tho 
Eevolutionary struggle — but it arose behind a 
dark and portentous cloud. The whole political 
heavens have been overcast and darkened by that 
cloud, threatening, ever and anon, to burst in a 
storm of destructive wrath over the whole land. 
It did burst at last, and descend in a flood of deso- 
lating vengeance. But, God be praised ! the coun- 
try is safe once more — the heavens have been puri- 
fied — the threatening and portentous cloud has 
passed away, and the sun of our freedom begins to 
shine forth, with a full-orbed glory, shedding an 
effulgence that shall radiate and lighten distant 
lands. 

So far as human instrumentality is entitled to 
any honor, for doing what God decreed should be 
done, in reference to the Act of Emancipation, 
that honor must redound to the name of Presi- 
dent Abraham Lincoln — a name, now rendered 
immortal^ and which will stand second only to 
that of Washington. His hand it was that laid 
the cap-stone in the completion of our Temple of 
Freedom. Tlie foundations of that glorious struc- 



THE PROCLAMATION. 201 

ture, were laid by our fathers, under the guidance 
of Washington, but we must say, they left it in an 
unfinished state. It is true, they saw and they 
proclaimed the great truth, which none others 
had ever seen or proclaimed before them, that " all 
men are created free and equal," but still, they 
permitted some to continue in a state of bondage, 
and the work which they commenced, was left 
unfinished ! It was scarcely possible that so per- 
fect and magnificent a structure, should be the 
work of a single generation. They gave us the 
theory and the constitution of a free government, 
almost perfect — with only a single defect. That 
defect is now removed, and we stand before the 
world, an example of the wisdom of the theory, 
announced by them. 

We are wont to believe, that, when a great 
revolution or change is to be wrought, vitally con- 
nected with the destiny and happiness of whole 
nations, suitable agents and instruments are spe- 
cially raised up to accomplish the work. Thus, 
we believe that our Washington was raised up, 
and that he was guided and sustained by a Spe- 
cial Providence, to fulfill the purpose of that 
Providence, in laying the foundations of this Em- 
pire of Freedom. 



202 THE PROCLAMATION. 

In the same manner, we must believe that 
President Lincoln was the man designated and 
raised up by the same protecting and overruling 
Power, to conduct this Nation through the gloomi- 
est period of her history. There has not been 
a darker day in our National history, than the 
day when he took the helm of State. We 
thought the Union was irrecoverably gone ! The 
ablest and wisest statesmen, both North .,and 
South, had exhausted all their efforts and coun- 
sels, at compromise and conciliation, but to no 
purpose. A cloud of gloom and despondency, 
seemed to cover all faces. But there was one 
man who did not despair of the Union, and 
whose mind was made up — and that was the Pres- 
ident. 

He summoned the Governors of the States to- 
gether for consultation. He spoke : 

" Gentlemen, the machinery of the nation is out 
of order. We must run it as we find it. Its in- 
telligent wheels, its rods, its belts are separated, 
but the boiler seems to be perfect. We must re- 
pair the work, with such skill and ingenuity as 
we possess. There is wisdom in counsel, and, 
therefore I have called you, that we may reason 
together. What shall we do, that we may crush 



THE PROrLAMATION. 203 

this foul rebellion, and preserve the country from 
wreck? I have made up my mind, with implicit 
confidence in an Overruling Providence, to meet 
all emergencies that may arise. It is time to 
work. What shall I do about issuing a procla- 
mation to the people ?" 

Here was firmness of purpose, and decision of 
character, which showed that the right man stood 
at the wheel, in the Pilot-house. Had he wavered 
then, and vacillated between hope and fear, as if 
he knew not whether to move forward or back- 
ward, the country would have been lost. Had 
he possessed the weak and cowering will of his 
predecessor, nothing could have saved the State. 

The Governors seemed undecided, hardly know- 
ing what counsel to give. They were noble, brave, 
patriotic men, but even they seemed fearful, and 
appalled at that solemn crisis, when the nation's 
destiny trembled in the balance. After some mo- 
ments, during which a profound silence reigned, 
the President addressed Gov. Curtin personally — 
" What will Pennsylvania do, if I issue my proc- 
lamation?" There was another deep and solemn 
pause. But at length, the Governor, as if he had 
caught inspiration -from the President, having read 
the firm resolve which flashed from his eye, and 



204 THE PROCLAMATION. 

the confidence and hope which inspired his whole 
manner, energetically and nobly answered — "Sir, 
if you will issue your proclamation, Pennsylvania 
will furnish you a hundred thousand men, in a weekJ^ 
The President grasped the hand of the Governor 
convulsively, and ejaculated " thank God for that 
noble reply — I will, at once, issue my proclamation.'^ 
And he did issue it. 

The " nick of time,^^ that comes in the affairs of 
nations, had now come, and was past — The crisis 
was past, and the nation was saved from that 
hour. It is said that the President of the great 
American Nation, shed tears of joy, which mingled 
with those that suffused the cheeks of the patriot 
Governor of the Key-stone State. The gloom 
that enshrouded that conclave of men, passed 
away like the morning mist before the power of 
the summer sun ; hope revived their drooping 
spirits, and joy took the place of sorrow. 

Never, since this nation sprung into existence, 
has there been a man placed in so responsible 
and critical a position, as President Lincoln at 
that very nick of time. And never was there a 
man who met the crisis and the responsibility, 
with a more manly and becoming spirit. If he 
has political enemies now, we have no fear that 



THE PROCLAMATION. 205 

posterity will not do him justice. His name will 
descend to history, as the Second Saviour of his 
country. But even if he had done nothing else 
during his presidential term, the ^d of Emanci- 
pation, alone, would insure immortality to his 
memory. 

It were greatly to be wished, that, it could be 
recorded by the impartial historian, that the Act 
of Emancipation, which gave freedom to four 
millions of human beings, who had been cruelly 
oppressed, had been a measure demanded by the 
united voice of the people, as an act of justice 
and humanity— and that the proclamation had 
been issued in answer to that demand. We may 
suppose that Heaven would have looked down, 
with a smile of complacency, at beholding the 
deed, and would have blessed our land ! 

But that proclamation was issued on the ground 
of MILITARY NECESSITY. We wcrc made willing 
to open the doors of the prisoner, and to let the 
oppressed go free, because the measure was neces- 
sary to save ourselves, and to maintain the govern- 
ment. We regret that we are compelled to in- 
dulge the reflection that if our own salvation had 
not imperatively required the measure, the poor 
African slave might still have hugged his chains, 



206 THE PROCLAMATION. 

and still have sighed in vain for freedom, under 
the very shadow of the temple of freedom ! 

We have, as a nation, done what was right, but 
not because it was right. We have performed a 
great and glorious act of justice, but not because 
it was justice. We have freed the slave from his 
abject and degrading state of bondage, but not 
because prompted by sentiments of pity and 
humanity. But, nevertheless, since the act of 
Justice, and right, and humanity has been passed, 
and there is an end of slavery, we will say that 
we are satisfied — that we are thankful ! 

The African people, will remember the house of 
their bondage, from which they were redeemed, 
with so many signs and terrible judgments. They 
will not forget the day, when they were proclaimed 
free. The first day of January will be their great 
anniversary^ the annual return of which, will be 
celebrated by joyful acclamations and hymns of 
praise from a grateful people, down to the latest 
times. And while they give to the Great Creator, 
all the glory of their deliverance and their salva- 
tion, they will cherish the name of Abraham Lin- 
coln, who was the chosen instrument in His hand, 
in accomplishing their deliverance. 



207 



XVI. 

HOW TO DISPOSE OF THE LIBERATED 
SLAVES. 

" Take no thought for the morrow, for the 
morrow shall take thought for the things of itself," 
is a wise and judicious saying, which may be com- 
"mended, as worthy of attention, to that numerous 
class of philanthropists, who manifest so much 
concern about the future of the emancipated slave. 
One would almost conclude, from the unusual anx- 
iety which they seem to feel lest these poor Afri- 
cans should be starved to death among us, or be 
unable to find a home in this broad land, that 
they had been appointed as the guardians of the 
colored race, and were solely responsible for their 
future welfare, and their good conduct. 

Now, it may be sufficient to remind all such 
charitably disposed persons, that they may con- 
sider themselves as relieved from all such respon- 
sibility, as the Divine Being is, " de natura rerum^^^ 



208 HOW TO DISPOSE OF 

the Guardian of the race. He took care of them, 
when they were in bondage— He brought them 
out of a state of Slavery — And he can provide for 
them in a state of freedom. 

If we did not know that it is written, "The 
poor are God's heritage/' and that it is His special 
prerogative to take care of His own, we might 
believe these whining and sickly sentimentalists 
were in earnest, and meant something, when they 
utter so much cant, as to the future starvation and 
wretchedness in store for the Africans, as the con- 
sequence of their emancipation. 

Of one thing we may rest well assured, and 
that is, the burden of caring for, and providing 
for their temporal support, will not fall on the 
Northern States. The South will be their future 
home, both because it is their native land, and the 
clime congenial to their nature, The apprehen- 
sion that a tide of emigration will begin to flow 
towards the North, by which every town and 
county in the Northern States, will be overrun 
and burdened by hordes of vagrant and idle ne- 
groes, is altogether an imaginary evil, which, if it 
should happen, would be in direct contravention 
of all the known laws of nature. 

The A fricans are a gregarious or clannish, people, 



THE LIBERATED SLAVES. 209 

as much so as the Germans, the Irish, the Japanese, 
or any other distinct nationality or race. They 
prefer the society of their own people, when they 
can find it. The free blacks scattered through 
the Canadas and in the free States, are those, who 
escaped thither, at least the majority, to avoid op- 
pression in the South., But when slavery is abol- 
ished, and when they can live in the South, and 
enjoy the rights and privileges of freemen, instead 
of there being a rush of this population to the 
North, the tide of emigration will set the other 
way, and many of those who had been shivering 
with cold, and freezing at the North, will be glad 
to seek their own congenial and native clime. Of 
course, from a variety of accidental and contin- 
gent causes, there will always be individuals of 
this race, as of every other race, scattered over the 
world. But I do not think, that, in ten or twenty 
years hence, when the new social order, conse- 
quent on this rebellion, shall be settled on a sure 
basis, there will be a larger proportion of the 
colored population in the Northern States, than 
at present. The great body of them will be 
massed together in the States bordering on the 
Gulf. 
As for the idea of colonizing so many millions — 



210 HOW TO DISPOSE OF 

it is a Utopian scheme. In reference to the neces- 
sity or utility of the plan, we might ask, cui bono ? 
Has the scheme ever been found practicable ? 
The States of South America emancipated their 
slaves — Mexico emancipated her slaves. And 
many of the Northern States emancipated their 
slaves, years ago. But, in no instance was coloni- 
zation attempted, nor, that I am aware of, even 
thought desirable. 

What evil has ever resulted from the fact 
that they were permitted to remain in the States 
where they were born? There have never been 
any collisions between them and the white popu- 
lation. They have never betrayed a spirit of in- 
subordination to the laws of the country. And, 
I believe, that the first case of insurrection, 
against those by whom they were liberated, has 
yet to be recorded. Under all circumstances, as 
their history shows, they have evinced a spirit of 
forbearance, patience, and uncomplaining meek- 
ness, such as no other people have ever exhib- 
ited. Now, wherefore should a whole nation be 
transported, at incredible expense, from the homes 
of their birth, to another and distant continent? 
The idea is absurd. It cannot be done — It will 
not be done. There is no necessity, and no 



THE LIBERATED SLAVES. 211 

reason in the world, why such a measure should 
be attempted. 

Moreover, they can be made a useful popula- 
tion in this country. Indeed, their labor and 
services could not well be dispensed with. It 
would be like the amputation of a right arm, or 
severing a sinew that supports the body, for the 
nation voluntarily to deprive itself, of such an 
amount of useful and productive labor. A more 
egregious piece of folly could not well be con- 
ceived of. Rice, sugar, and cotton, are staple 
productions, and indispensable in all the markets 
of the world. And how are we going to do with- 
out them? The negroes are habituated to the 
culture of these staples. It is their occupation. 
And shall we deprive them of their occupation, 
and ourselves, at the same time, of these neces- 
sary and valuable productions, or become depend- 
ent on other countries for a supply of them? 

Interest, then — the reciprocal interest of them- 
selves and the white population, imperatively de- 
mands that they shall remain in the country, and 
apply themselves to the pursuits which they have 
so thoroughly learned, thereby gaining an honest 
livelihood for themselves, besides bringing a large 
revenue into the national treasury. 



212 HOW TO DISPOSE OF 

But will they not relapse into idleness and 
barbarism, after they are freed? The lying 
slander has been repeated a thousand times, by 
slave-holders, and the abettors of the system, that 
the negro will not work unless he is compelled 
by the lash ; and that the only way to keep him 
from running back into his original barbarism, is, 
to keep him in Slavery. I aver, after long ob- 
servation, that the only industrious and laboring 
population in the Southern States, is the negro 
race. If there shall be any starvation, resulting 
from idleness, after the Act of Emancipation shall 
have gone into effect in all the States, it will 
not be among the once enslaved race, but among 
those who were formerly their masters. They 
never did work — They are not accustomed to it 
— They despised labor — They passed their days 
in indolence — And it will be no surprising thing, 
if many of them should come to want and beg- 
gary, or be supported by charity. It is to be 
hoped their sympathizing friends in the Northern 
States, will lend a gracious ear to their appeals, 
when they shall be made. 

There never has been any substantial proof 
adduced, in support of the oft-repeated falsehood, 
that the negro-race arc naturally more indolent 



THE LIBERATED SLAVES. 213 

than any other race, and that they will not work, 
unless compelled by the lash. A thorough investi- 
gation, in the West Indies, whence the slander 
was first started, has shown that they have never 
refused to work, when they obtained a reasonable 
compensation for their labor. 

Let tlie officers of our army be called on, for 
testimony on this point, who have required their 
services at Vicksburg, and other places, in digging 
ditches and trenches, and in erecting fortifications. 
In all these Southern States, where the war has 
raged, they have been hewers of wood and draw- 
ers of water — in fact, they have been drudges and 
slaves for mr army. But have they ever refused 
their services, when asked, in the first instance? 
Never ! Whenever, and wherever it has been sig- 
nified that work was required to be done by them, 
they have thrown themselves into it with an en- 
ergy and good will, which ought to put to silence 
the lying calumny, at least, in the minds of all 
our military commanders. 

The thousands of contrabands, who came into 
camp, when General Butler's army took possession 
of the Lafourch district, above New Orleans, were 
willing to return to work, every man and woman, 
upon the assurance that they were under the pro- 



214 HOW TO DISPOSE OF 

tection of our Government, and should not be 
left absolutely at the mercy of their former mas- 
ters. And they have been working industriously 
ever since, for a bare nominal pay of two or 
three dollars per month. 

No, it is not true, that the negro will not work. 
He has always been used to labor — And he has 
no aversion to it. And our Government could 
not commit a greater blunder, than to transport 
such a population out of the country. 

But after ally there is an insuperable prejudice 
against the African race, in the minds of many, 
and they have got the idea, some how, into their 
heads, that the two races cannot, and ought not 
to dwell together, in the same country. 

It is the merest folly to attempt seriously, to 
combat a weak and silly prejudice. But I would 
advise all those who have such a dislike to a 
dark skin, and to the peculiar odor of an African, 
as not to be willing to live in the same country, 
to emigrate to Europe, and leave America to the 
colored race, and to those who are willing to 
dwell on the same continent with them. In the 
Providence of God, they were brought to America, 
and it is just as much their country as it is that 
of the white man. And if there is a white man, 



THE LIBERATED SLAVES. 215 

who cannot lire with the black man, let him leave 
the country, and return to the land of his fathers, 
and not demand that the black man be driven 
away, who has an equal right here with him- 
self. 

But there is no necessity — there is room enough 
in this country for all. Let those who have this 
peculiar dislike to the color of an African, remain 
in the Northern States. He will not often see an 
African there, to offend his sight, or his olfactory 
nerve. He is not compelled, by any necessity, to 
remove South, where the Africans will be princi- 
pally congregated. 

But now, seriously, I would ask, if the white 
and black populations could mix together, and 
associations, as to all the social relationships and 
duties of domestic life, were not so very disagree- 
able and irksome, when the latter were held in a 
state of slavery, what will render the same or 
similar associations so very repugnant and offen- 
sive, when they shall become intelligent and edu- 
cated freemen ? Some of the very elite of Ameri- 
can Society, the aristocrats of the land, the 
educated, the fashionable, and the refined, have 
been able, not only to dwell with them in the 
same country, and to tolerate their dark color 



216 HOW TO DISPOSE OF 

and their African odor, but they even had such a 
partiality and affection for them, that they could 
not do without their presence in the nursery, in 
the kitchen, in the parlor, and in every other 
department of domestic life. They could hardly 
relish their food, unless prepared by the hand of 
some negro cook. In short, the African was con- 
sidered as an essential element in the constitution 
of a perfect social system. And we may conclude, 
that, there will be multitudes who will be able to 
abide still on this continent, although the negro- 
race should not be compelled to leave it. 

Let them reman in the land of their birth. 
Let them continue to cultivate the fertile rice 
districts of South Carolina, and the lowlands of 
Florida, Louisiana, and the Mississippi and Gulf 
coasts, in sugar and cotton. We shall need these 
staples, and none can produce them so well as 
they. We can give them churches and schools. 
And Providence can work out the problem, that, 
the African can be developed into the highest 
type of man. It is the destiny, which, beyond a 
peradventure, awaits them. Another age may see, 
that, though the different families of man, are 
distinguished by certain peculiarities of language 
and climate, yet they are but one family, after all, 



THE LIBERA ILD SLAVES. 217 

and can dwell together in harmony and peace, in 
the same country, and under a common govern- 
ment. This is the lesson we ought to learn. That 
it is the design of the Great and Supreme Father, 
we should understand it. there can be no doubt. 



218 



XYII. 
EELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 

There is one element in the native African 
character, which proves, at least, that they are 
endowed with immortal souls, and that is, the 
strong and original tendency, in their minds, to 
religious devotion. Materialistic writers have en- 
deavored to create doubts, whether there be any 
such thing as mitid or spirit, as distinct from 
man's corporeal being, and capable of an exis- 
tence, separate from, and independent of the 
body. 

I have never bestowed any thought on such 
writers, believing their speculations to be utterly 
unworthy of notice. If the creation of a man, 
proves the existence of an intelligent Creator, so 
does the creation of man as a religious being, prove 
the fact of his accountability — and if he is accoun- 
table to his God, he must be immortal, and the 
proof of this, is inscribed on his physical being, 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 219 

by the finger of Jehovah, notwithstanding all that 
infidels have said. 

There is no other religious animal in the world, 
that we know of, but man. Man is, by his nature 
and original constitution, a religious being. And 
if this proves him to be immortal, the argument 
is conclusive to prove that Africans have souls. 
I make this observation, on account of the many 
puerile and ridiculous attempts to prove the in- 
feriority of the negro race. It is true, none of 
them had the hardihood to avow that negroes 
have not souls. But the whole drift and tendency 
of the speculations of some of them looked in that 
direction, and indicated plainly enough, that, it 
was just what they would have avowed, if they 
had not feared the effect of such an avowal. 

Dr. Samuel Cartwright styled the negro race, 
the " Prognathous race." He says " the typical 
negroes of adult age, are proved to belong to a 
diffe|*ent species, from the man of Europe or Asia, 
because the head and face are, anatomically, con- 
structed more after the fashion of the Simiadiae 
(monkeys) and the brute creation, than the Cau- 
casian and Mongolian species of mankind, their 
mouth and jaws projecting beyond the forehead 
containins: the anterior lobes of the brain. More- 



220 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 

over, their faces are, proportionally, larger than 
their crania, instead of smaller, as in the other 
two species of the genus man. Young monkeys 
and young negroes, however, are not prognathous, 
like their parents, but become so, as they grow 
older." 

Here is another brief quotation from the same 
essay of the learned Doctor : " On another point, 
of much importance, there is no practical differ- 
ence, between the Eev. Missionary (Mr. Bowen) 
and that clear-headed, bold and eccentric old 
Methodist, Dr. McFarlane. Both believe that the 
Bible can do ignorant, sensual savages no good ; 
both believe that nothing but compulsatory power 
can restrain uncivilized barbarians from Polygamy, 
inebriety, and other sinful practices." This con- 
clusion of the Doctor, if they are as near akin to 
the monkey tribes as to the genus man, is natural 
and legitimate. 

The Baptist Missionary Bowen had been to 
Africa, sent thither by a society in Charleston. 
He had been brought up in Georgia, and all his 
prejudices were in favor of slavery. He found the 
natives of Africa in a condition so far inferior to 
that of the slaves of his own native State, that, he 
hastily, and I will add, wickedly concluded, that 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 221 

the only way to christianize the Africans was to 
enslave them. Dr. Cartwright seizes the conclu- 
sion, but too well predisposed by his theory, and 
makes a bold and rash attack on the Bible, as au 
instrumentality, inadequate to the conversion or 
civilization of savages. Adopting his theory and 
conclusions, we should never have attempted the 
conversion of the natives of the Sandwich Islands ; 
but we ought to have sent pirate ships thither to 
bring them away in chains, and then to have sold 
them into slavery, before we attempted their con- 
version. Nay more, we should first have enslaved 
the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians, resident in 
the Southern States, before we tried to christianize 
them. We remember very distinctly, that, when 
the attempt was first undertaken, with the Bible 
to convert and civilize them, there were many 
who, like Dr. Cartwright, believed it could not be 
done. 

It is to be lamented that such a writer should 
be able to quote the opinion of a Christian minis- 
ter, in favor of the infidel sentiment. It is not 
only a slur on the Bible ; but it is an inversion 
of the order of things ordained by God, to say, 
that the Bible can do no good, till '^ compulsatory 
powe?',^^ or slavery, has restrained uncivilized bar- 



222 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 

barians, from polygamy and other sinful practices. 
The Bible is God's great moral lever, to move the 
moral world — the only lever that has ever moved 
it, the only one that can move it. Nothing else 
has ever curbed and restrained the sinful passions 
of men, and produced morality in the world. The 
most reckless infidel would hardly presume to cite 
us, to any instance of a nation, with a pure sys- 
tem of morality, without the Bible. 

I hazard the remark, that, if one quarter of 
the sum expended in fitting out ships during the 
last two or three centuries to rob Africa of her 
children, and in carrying on the Slave-Trade, had 
been expended in sending Bibles to Africa, and 
missionaries to instruct the natives to read it, 
there would not have been a barbarian, on the 
whole continent of Africa to-day. 

They are just as religious by nature, if any- 
thing more so, than the Indian, or the native of 
the South Sea Islands. And, as to their intel- 
lectual character, if there is any difference be- 
tween the African, and the Asiatic or the Indian, 
every capable and impartial observer will give it, 
without the least hesitation, in favor of the former. 
There is a certain sprightliness of character and 
genius, belonging to the negro, which does not 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 223 

belong to the Asiatic or the Indian. Physically, 
he is altogether the superior man. 

Having spent many years in ministerial labors, 
both among the white and black populations, at 
the South, I am prepared to express the opinion, 
that there is a far greater amount of genuine re- 
ligious piety, among the latter than among the 
former. The religious statistics of different com- 
munities would confirm this statement. There 
are as many colored church members in the Prot- 
estant churches of New Orleans, as there are 
white communicants, although the white popula- 
tion is more than twice as great as the colored. 
Take the city of Eichmond, and the same thing is 
true. There are more colored than white com- 
municants. There is a single African Church in 
that city, numbering over two thousand members, 
which is more than the whole number of white 
communicants in all the churches, although there 
are two white inhabitants for every colored per- 
son in the city. Could these things be so, if the 
negro were naturally, more depraved than other 
men, and insusceptible to religious and moral in- 
fluences? Do not such facts prove that Africans 
have, even more of the religious element in their 
nature, than the whites? 



224 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 

I would not assert, that, throughout the South- 
ern States, these relative proportions in the num- 
bers of the pious, would be kept up between the 
two populations. For very obvious reasons, there 
would be found to be considerable variations. 
And one principal reason is, that the two classes 
do not enjoy, and never have enjoyed the same or 
equal religious privileges. There is many a large 
district or region, where the slaves have no means 
of grace. I could name a single planter, who 
owns, at least, a thousand negroes, who, I suppose, 
would not give a dime to pay a minister of the 
Gospel to preach to them, to save them all from 
eternal perdition. For he is a wicked old sin- 
ner, and does not believe in the Gospel. Where 
they are denied the means of grace, it is not to 
be expected that they should become religious. 
But give them the same advantages with tlie 
whites, and I am strongly inclined to the belief 
that, everywhere, they will be the more Christian 
people. I offer no reason for this opinion, only, 
that so far as my observation has extended, every- 
where, it is so. 

I am aware that there are many, very refined 
and elegant people, who do not place a very 
high estimate on a negro's piety. Tliey think 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OP THE NECxRO. 225 

him a superstitious rather than a religious being, 
and his piety is taken for superstition rather 
than religion. I know that there is, generally, 
a fervor that characterizes the religious devo- 
tions of the African, not often to be found in 
the worship of white congregations.^ But we can- 
not think the Father Supreme will deem their 
humble sacrifice as less worthy of his notice, be- 
cause their whole heart is in it. True, they may 
not be permitted to worship in temples of gothic 
structure, built by art, and richly decorated — 
Their ministers may not be the most graceful 
and polished in their manner, and may not be 
able to round each sentence in their sermons, ac- 
cording to the most classical and elegant model 
— And they may have no deep-toned organs to 
accompany their loud and clear voices in hymn- 
ing Jehovah's praises. But still, they generally 
sing with a fervor and spirit, not always found 
in our more fashionable congregations, where the 
music is made, not by the worshippers, but by 
hired substitutes. 

I remember that, on one occasion, during the 
year 1847, I heard the sublimest strains of church 
music I ever listened to, in that grand African 
church in Richmond. Indeed, \ may say, I never 



226 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 

expect to hear such church music again, on this 
side of Jordan ; for really I know of no fitter 
words, to convey a proper idea of its effect on 
my mind at the time. The church edifice occu- 
pies the site of the old theater, that was burned 
some years ago. They have a large choir, who 
are instructed in the science of music. But, I 
can say that some of their voices sounded to me 
more melodious and musical than the sweetest- 
toned instruments. Church-organ music is nothing 
compared to it. It would be difficult to persuade 
me that the Africans cannot, as a general rule, 
sincr better than the whites. But the most in- 
teresting feature in their music is, that, it always 
seems to come from the heart. 

It is true, this may be all mere superstition, 
or religious enthusiasm. And I may be consid- 
ered, by some, as tinctured with the same sort 
of enthusiasm myself, for the expression of such 
sentiments. But I cannot help it. I am bound 
to think that tlie Supreme Father must have a 
special regard to that people, who have so large 
a share of the divine or religious element in their 
natural character. 

If there is any principle in a human being 
that may be called divine, it certainly is the reli- 



RELIGIOUS CHARAC'^^ER OF THE NEGRO. 227 

gious element of his nature. And we have a right 
to conclude that the nation or people which have 
this principle developed in the highest degree, 
must have a high and noble destiny in reserve 
for them. 

Here, I must borrow one of Emerson's carly- 
lisms^ for it well expresses my meaning : 

"I esteem the occasion of this jubilee (West 
Indian emancipation), to be the proud discovery 
that the black race can contend with the white ; 
that, in the great anthem which we call history, 
a piece of many parts, and vast compass, after 
playing a long time, a very low and subdued 
accompaniment, they perceive the time arrived 
when they can strike in with effect, and take a 
master's part in the music. The civility of the 
world has reached that pitch, that their more 
moral genius is becoming indispensable, and the 
quality of this race is to be honored for itself. 
For this, they have been preserved in sandy 
deserts, in rice swamps, in kitchens and shoe- 
shops, so long ; now let them emerge, clothed, 
and in their own form." 



228 



XYIII. 
THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 

At a late hour, the Government has determined 
to call in the aid of the African, for the purpose 
of putting down this mighty Rebellion. After 
having tried, in vain, for two years, the experi- 
ment of subjugating the South, without permit- 
ting a single colored man to become a soldier, 
and even after having refused their services when 
voluntarily offered, in the common cause, they 
have at last been compelled, reluctantly, to arm 
the negro to save the Union ! 

If this policy had been adopted at the very 
beginning of the struggle, it would have been 
ended months agone. But a decree had gone 
forth, which no policy of man could counteract or 
circumvent, that the victims required as sacrifices 
on the bloody altar, in this war, must be of the 
white, not the black race. And the consequence 
is, that, we have offered up our own sons and 



THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 229 

brothers by the hundred thousand. To preserve 
our own soldiers from utter extirpation, and to 
preserve our National existence, we have at last, 
magnanimously^ consented to let the negro bear 
an honorable part, in the effort to maintain the 
substance of Republican Liberty. 

Tell me, in the name of reason, why it is that 
a great and enlightened people, in a war for 
liberty, and for the preservation of free institu- 
tions, has ignored the very existence, except as 
chattels and slaves, of an army of more than half 
a million of men, able-bodied, patriotic and brave, 
but as unfitted by the very fact of their deep 
oppression and enslavement, to take any active 
part in the struggle for freedom ? There was a 
fatuity in it! There is no other answer. 

It was not because they were lacking in patriot- 
ism, or attachment to the Union-cause — for that 
has never been doubted. It was not because 
they were deficient in physical courage, and could 
not fight as soldiers — for every intelligent person, 
who has any knowledge of the African character, 
knows the very reverse to be true. The African 
is the best type of the physical man, in all South- 
ern latitudes. Even the veriest advocate of 
slavery, who has always lived at the South, and 



230 THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 

known the African character, has been willing to 
concede to them the possession of physical cour- 
age. Chancellor Harper, one of their best au- 
thorities, says : 

" They are, by no means, wanting in physical 
strength of nerve. They are excitable by praise, 
and, directed by those in whom they have confi- 
dence, would rush fearlessly and unquestioning, 
upon any sort of danger. With white officers, 
and accompanied with a strong white cavalry, 
there are no troops in the world, from whom 
there would be so little reason to apprehend 
insubordination or mutiny." He further, adds : 

" If, at any time, we should be engaged in hos- 
tilities with our neighbors, and it were thought 
advisable to send such an army abroad to 
conquer settlements for themselves, the invaded 
regions might have occasion to think, that, the 
scourge of God was again let loose to afflict the 
earth." 

These sentences indicate, clearly, that this highly 
educated Southern gentleman entertained no ordi- 
nary opinion of the physical bravery and capa- 
cities of the negro race. 

All who have read the accounts of the San 
Domingo Revolution, must know something about 



THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 231 

the fiery enthusiasm of the African in the tumult 
of battle. The very same quality of his nature, 
has, more than once, been proved, since this san- 
guinary contest was commenced. Colonel Higgin- 
son, commanding the first regiment of colored 
troops in South Carolina, as we remember, testi- 
fied that he had never read nor heard of any- 
thing to equal the fierceness and fiery ardor of 
their attacks, except in the history of the French 
Zouaves. A similar record will go down to his- 
tory, in honor of the Kansas Colored Regiment. 
In a late battle in Arkansas, the commanding 
General reported, that, they fought against three 
times their number of Texans, for hours, with an 
obstinacy never surpassed, and finally routed them. 
Another battle-field, fought in the same State, near 
Helena, where about one thousand of our troops 
' contended against more than twice that number 
of the enemy, according to the reports published 
at the time, was saved entirely by the valor of 
the colored troops that belonged to the corps — 
they were determined not to surrender — victory 
or death was their watch-word — and, though some 
of their white ofiicers basely fled, they fought and 
held the enemy, till reinforcements came to their 
relief. Such records as these speak* volumes. 



232 THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 

In the Gulf Department, the African regiments 
have had no opportunity to test their fighting 
qualities. They have been stationed at Forts 
Jackson, Pike, St. Philip, yShip Island and other 
places, to do garrison duty. In June last, when 
there was a lack of men to press the siege at 
Port Hudson, and to make the contemplated as- 
sault, a portion of two or three of the regiments 
of Native Guards, (colored), were ordered to be 
transferred thither, and took a part in the bloodi- 
est engagement fought during that siege. They 
were ordered to take a certain battery, in posses- 
sion of the enemy — they took it, though in doing 
so, some hundreds of their number fell, of the 
wounded and killed. It was said, at the time, 
that they would have held the battery, if they had 
been sustained by the white troops — but, that, not 
being sustained, they were compelled to fall back 
from the position they had gained, under the con- 
centrated fire and numbers of the enemy. But 
they had proved their courage, and the command- 
ing General thought it not improper, in an elo- 
quent address, to pay them a deserved and just 
tribute, at the time, for the valor displayed by 
them. 

It was in that assault, that Captain Kieux, of 



THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 233 

the First Regiment, was killed. No braver man, 
ever lived. He was as black as the ace of spades. 
Yet he was an accomplished gentleman, and every 
officer who knew, loved and respected him. He 
was indeed worthy to be called a countryman of 
the brave and illustrious Toussant. I shall not 
soon forget his expressive countenance, and the 
impression made on me by his bland, and easy, 
and gentlemanly manners. 

I will not say that our own soldiers have not 
fought well, and done their whole duty, on every 
battle-field ; but, I must say, that, if any compar- 
ison is made between them and the black troops, 
as to the courage and other soldierly qualities 
of each respectively, the palm cannot yet be 
awarded to the former. 

If Gen. Butler had organized fifteen or twenty 
of these regiments of black Native Guards, instead 
of three, only, in the fall of 1862, as he probably 
would have done, had he remained in that depart- 
ment, they would have been able, under the lead 
of officers only as brave as themselves, to march 
through western Louisiana, and into the very 
heart of Texas ; and no force which the rebels 
had in the field, could have successfully opposed 
their progress. But, instead of carrying out the 



2B4 THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 

policy, so wisely commenced, of arming the slave 
population, the work was suspended for some 
months, and the contrabands, fugitives from slav- 
ery, who came within our lines for protection 
and liberty, were remanded back to the planta- 
tions, to work, many of them, for their old rebel 
masters, for a nominal pay of two or three dol- 
lars per month, instead of being transformed into 
freemen and soldiers of the Republic, as brave 
and efficient as any the world ever saw. 

Let no reader suppose that I indulge in exag- 
gerated statements. Many of the best military 
judges, who have visited the camps of the Louis- 
iana Native Guards (colored), and seen them on 
dress parade, have acknowledged them to be 
fully equal to any other regiments. As for the 
Second Regiment, stationed on Ship Island, I 
can say, that, of the scores of officers, who have 
visited that station, many of them fully prejios- 
sessed against the blacks, and against the policy 
of arming them, I have not known one who has 
gone away without being made a sincere and 
genuine convert to the system. Many of these 
military gentlemen have expressed the opinion, 
that this colored regiment is, in drill and dis- 
cipline, in manly and robust form and appear- 



THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 235 

ance, and all that constitutes an efficient military 
corps, quite equal to any other regiment or corps 
they ever saw on parade. Of course, this is say- 
ing much, but I am not giving my own opinion, 
as I do not profess to be a critic in such mat- 
ters ; but I am giving the expressed opinion of 
others, who are judges. But I can say, that, they 
march better than any other soldiers I have ever 
seen. They march to the music — with a step so 
uniform and simultaneous, that, one would almost 
be inclined to believe that the whole army moved 
with one set of joints. No one can see a whole 
regiment in motion, with their neat uniforms and 
furbished arms, without a thrill of pleasure and 
pride. 

One reason, perhaps, why they appear to an 
advantage, as compared even with some of our 
white regiments, is, that they feel a sort of 
ambition, and think there is something of glory 
in' belonging to the great Army of the Repub- 
lic, battling for the cause of Freedom. They feel 
that they have been elevated in the scale of hu- 
manity. And it is but natural that they should 
desire to show themselves worthy of the honor 
conferred on them, and the confidence reposed in 
them. 



236 THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 

The Africans, as a race, have more enthusiastic 
fervor in their nature, and are more governed by 
impulse and sympathy, than any other people with 
whom I am acquainted. It is for this reason, that, 
if we go into their religious assemblies, we always 
witness a display of far more earnest devotion and 
fervor, than is ever seen in our more phlegmatic 
and formal white assemblies. The same principle 
in their nature, would fire a whole army of them 
in the field of battle, and fill them with an enthu- 
siasm which would render them invincible, and 
utterly reckless of danger. This is the true ex- 
planation of the fact, that, as proved in the wars 
of San Domingo, and wherever else their courage 
has been tested, they have been found more darings 
if not better disciplined, than any other soldiers. 

The negroes, not only have an arcknt tempera- 
ment, or enthusiastic nature, which is the very first 
and most essential element to make a good soldier, 
but here, in the South, they possess powers of en- 
durance, beyond any other class of the inhabitants. 
This fact is so generally known and admitted, that 
no additional testimony can be needed on this 
point. Indeed, the learned Dr. Cartwright has 
asserted, in his writings, that it is impossible to 
work a negro beyond the point of his powers of 



THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 237 

endurance, so as to injure his constitution, or cause 
his death. The assertion is, upon the face of it, 
absurd and wholly untrue. But still, it is certain 
that their power of endurance, under exhausting 
fatigue and labor, is a marked feature in the char- 
acter of the race. 

It is not an easy matter to speak of the value 
of the aid, which Providence made accessible to 
us, and which we have rejected and despised, in 
the conduct of this murderous and destructive 
war. Was it necessary to spare the blood of the 
Africans in our midst, and to pour out our own ? 
Did we set a higher value on the lives of the 
negroes, than we did on those of our brothers and 
sons? There was a fatuity in this,uas before 
stated ! 

There was, what we may call a judicial Viind- 
ness, which had happened to the nation, because 
it seemed to be necessary, as a condition of Justice, 
that the expiation for the guilt of the nation, 
should be made, not in the blood of the guiltless, 
but of the guilty. We shall see in the end, per- 
haps, that, of those who had not sinned, but were 
sinned against, not more victims will be offered 
on the red altar of war, than will barely suffice 
to teach us, of what service they might have 



238 THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 

been, if we had been wise enough to employ 
them. 

We did not prosper in the war, so long as we 
let slavery alone, and resolved to spare it as a 
veneraole institution. For nearly two years, a 
series of bloody disasters and defeats attended our 
arms. But scarcely had our President uttered his 
solemn threat to the rebels, that unless within a 
specified time they laid down their arms, and re- 
turned to their allegiance, he would deprive them 
of their idol, the god which they had worshipped, 
when the victory of Antietam was announced^ 
which sent a thrill of joy throughout the nation — 
as if the God of nations had even deigned to put 
the seal o^ his approval upon what was nothing 
more, ir» fact, than a simple threat or promise to 
do right — to do justice, in a certain contingency. 

Well, the rebels would not lay down their arms, 
nor submit to the Government, and the President 
was necessitated to issue the threatened Prochima- 
tion. It was done reluctantly. And after all, it 
was but a partial act of emancipation, as it left 
many still in a state of bondage, whose chains 
might have been struck off, by the same blow, and 
at the same instant. 

I would again repeat my most solemn convic- 



THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 239 

tion, that the war will be protracted, and we 
shall suffer, till we are thoroughly corrected^ as a 
nation. 

If we had, at this moment, and we might have 
had, a compact army of one hundred thousand of 
these Africans, well disciplined, and under brave 
leaders, they would subdue the rebellion. The 
South could not raise an army that would dare to 
face such a host of well-armed and impetuous 
negro-soldiers. I feel almost as sure of this as 
I do of my own existence. They would put an 
end to slavery every where, as they marched 
through the country, thus depriving the Rebel- 
lion of its main prop and pillar, and obtaining 
almost a bloodless victory. The people of the 
South, if thus threatened and invaded, would 
speedily come to terms and ask for quarter. For, 
that they could muster an army, consisting of the 
sons of planters, and others thoroughly acquainted 
with the ardent and fiery nature of the African, 
who could be induced to encounter such a host in 
hostile array, upon equal terms, is a thought that 
has never entered into my conceptions. And 
there is no intelligent person, who could, for a 
moment, entertain sucli an idea. 

In the first place, their pride, and all their early 



240 THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 

prejudices, and the notions instilled into them by 
education, would cause them to shrink irom a con- 
test, with an army of negroes, upon terms of 
equality. In the «econd place, they would know, 
what every one else must feel well assured of, 
that the army of negro soldiers would be able to 
endure, or to hold oat in a fight, at least twice as 
long as themselves. And in the last place, they 
would have a conviction, that, in such a contest, 
fighting not only for freedom, but for their very 
existence, and armed by despair, such an army 
would have inscribed upon their banners, victory 
or death, and they could never hope to conquer 
them. 

Thus, we see what might have been done. But 
I venture to predict, that, we shall not have such 
an army in the field, of these fiery, sable sons of 
Africa, until just about the period when the war 
is ended. 

And then, we shall need their help, not to 
crush the rebellion, but to keep the rebels in 
subjection, after they have been subdued. The 
Government intends to put them in forts and 
garrisons, and other exposed places, for the pur- 
pose of guarding and securing the citadel of our 
freedom, after it shall have been re-established. 



THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 241 

Thus, in the Providence of God, they are to be 
appointed to act as patrols or sentinels, to watch 
and keep down those, by whom they had been 
so long watched and kept down. They are to 
be the masters^ in turn, where they had been the 
slaves. There is something like a stern but just 
retribution in this. Fiat voluntas Dei, 



242 



XIX. 

THE AUTHOR'S EXPERIENCE AMONG 
THE REBELS. 

My life, since I have been a man, acting on 
my own account, has been spent in the South, 
in the midst of Slavery. No sentiment or opin- 
ion, therefore, contained in the foregoing pages, 
has been received by me second-handed, but is 
the result of my own personal experience and 
observation. I know what I have written about. 
I know the people of the South, and their in- 
stitutions, thoroughly. I have looked at slavery 
in all its phases. 

I acknowledge that I never did believe slavery 
to be the very summum honum of all human bless- 
ings. When I left Ohio, in 1831, and came South, 
and ever since I have been in the South, I have 
had but the one opinion in regard to slavery, and 
that is the opinion so often expressed by Jeffer- 
son, and other distinguished statesmen, that it is 



AMONG THE REBELS. 243 

a violation of the natural rights of man, con- 
trary to the letter and spirit of the sentiments 
contained in our Declaration of Independence, 
and opposed to that sense of natural justice, 
forming a part of the universal conscience of 
man, which is, therefore, rightly considered as 
an exponent of what is the Will of God, on 
the subject. I never did, I never could believe 
slavery to be right, in the abstract. 
^ A sincere believer in the Bible, I have been 
looking forward to a better age, the promised 
Millennial age of the world, when, I firmly be- 
lieved that slavery, and war, and every other form 
of evil, will have been purged out, and when, ac- 
cording to the promise, " there shall be nothing to 
hurt nor destroy, in God's holy mountain." 

How this moral reformation of the world was 
to be brought about, it is not necessary now to 
inquire. But I believed it was to be done by 
moral means, and the circulation of the Bible, 
that great moral lever, which God has put into 
the hands of the Church. I was rather inclined 
to believe, that slavery, in this land, would come 
to an end, in the same way. But I have dis- 
covered, that, in this, I was mistaken. God had 
a controversy with our nation, which could not 



244 



be settled in this way. There were past wrongs 
which could not thus be rectified and redressed. 
I see my mistake now. I see and own God's 
justice. As a nation, we had lost sight of this 
eternal principle, written in His Word, and in- 
scribed on the very Heavens, " Justice and Judg- 
ment are the habitation of Thy Throne.''^ 

I acknowledge that my first impressions of 
slavery, on coming South, were not of a kind to 
strengthen even if I had possessed any early pre- 
judices in favor of the institution. 

I passed the first year in Greene county, Ala- 
bama, and boarded in the family of a respectable 
planter, a member of the Baptist Church, and the 
owner of about twenty-five slaves. One circum- 
stance that was novel to me, as I had never been 
accustomed to any thing of the kind, was, to be 
awakened every morning, or nearly every morning 
at day-break, by the sound of the overseer's lash. 
And as I knew that every stroke cut the skin and 
the flesh of the naked back of a slave, it made me 
feel nervous, before I had got used to it. This was 
the morning hitters, administered to cacli slave who 
had not performed a given task, or picked so 
many pounds of cotton the day previous. 

I might have remonstrated with the master, 



AMONG THE REBELS. 245 

against the cruelty of the practice, but I was then 
a young man, and a stranger in the country, and 
I knew it would do no good, but might get myself 
into a serious difficulty. I have seen the same 
proprietor and master, on several occasions, use a 
raw-hide on the person of his house-servant, a deli- 
cate looking woman, about half white, and desist 
from the whipping, only when he was actually 
exhausted, and could indulge his wrath no longer. 
I remember, that, it occurred to me, on one occa- 
sion, to count how many more stripes he would 
inflict, after I supposed he had already inflicted, 
at least one hundred and fifty, and appeared almost 
exhausted with his effort, and I counted one hun- 
dred and fifty more, making fully three hundred 
stripes that poor woman received, at one time. 
Of course, there was no part of her body that was 
not marked, and her garment was so stained, that, 
it would have been difficult to say whether crim- 
son or purple were not the original color. At first, 
she uttered loud and piercing cries — but these 
grew fainter and fainter, till, at last, they subsided 
into a low, moaning sound, hardly audible, as if 
she were engaged in a prayer, — but whether it 
was addressed to her master, or to her master's 
Master, I could not decide. 



246 THE AUTHOR S EXPERIENCE 

And yet, that man was a member of the church 
in good standing. Whether the yictim of his 
wrath, was a member of the church with him or 
not, I cannot tell. He was an acting justice of 
the peace, at the time, and, in all respects, stood 
high in that community. I have no reason for 
thinking that he was more cruel to his slaves 
than other masters. So far -from it, he was a 
humane and kind master as compared with many — 
perhaps, I may say, a majority of the slave-holders 
at the South. I am speaking of a state of things 
which I noticed, on first going South, and of what 
seemed to be the ordinary and established state of 
discipline for the slaves, in that community. No 
body appeared to suspect there was any moral 
wrong in inflicting one hundred, three hundred, or 
even five hundred stripes on the back of one's 
own slave, whenever he might take it into his head, 
thus to indulge his humor. For this was the 
common custom of the country, and there seemed 
to be no law against it. But, as it struck me at 
the time, the system appeared to be one of cruelty. 
And I am, now, more than ever established in the 
opinion, previously expressed in these pages, that, 
the system was not only founded in cruelty and 
blood, but, that it has been upheld by the same 



AMONG THE REBELS. 247 

means, so that a righteous Jehovah could not toler- 
ate its existence any longer in this land. 

The following year I went to Mississippi, and 
boarded in a family where the regime observed in 
the government of the slaves, was about the same 
as in the family with whom I had lived in Ala- 
bama. However, I had an opportunity, while in 
this family, to learn something of the modes of 
torture, or their manner of dealing with runaway 
slaves, so as to cure them of that propensity. 

The man who was to be punished, was a young 
man, apparently about twenty years of age, fully 
six feet in height, and a bright mulatto, nearly 
as white as myself— so near a white man, in fact, 
and so intelligent looking withal, that, I could 
not help feeling a strong sympathy for him, al- 
though I dared not to express it. He was staked 
to the ground, face downwards ; and burning 
wisps of straw were passed over his naked back 
and loins, till he was covered with blisters. The 
pain, of course, was excruciating at the time, but 
not calculated, permanently, to injure or maim 
the slave. I record the circumstance, merely to 
show how ingenious is cruelty, in devising the 
means of inflicting torture and pain. I had read 
of many ways of torturing victims and criminals, 



248 THE author's experience 

but I had never read nor heard of this particu- 
lar mode. But if I should proceed to relate all 
similar circumstances and facts that have come 
to my personal knowledge, directly or indirectly, 
I should have to write another book, instead of a 
short chapter, which it is not my intention to do, 
at present. 

For several years, before the public sentiment 
of the South, growing out of slavery, culminated 
and broke out in the Rebellion, I had come to 
the conclusion, that, liberty in those States, was 
at an end. 

The terms, yankee, and abolitionist, had come to 
mean nearly the same thing — and two more op- 
probrious epithets could hardly be conceived of, 
in the dialect of a Southerner. If a man hap- 
pened to have been born at the North, he had to 
show very clean papers to avoid being branded 
as an abolitionist ; and with that brand once 
fixed upon him, there was no safety, any where 
in the coimtry. He was liable to be hung up, 
without judge or jury, on any post-oak or black- 
jack, where he might happen to fall into the 
hands of a mob. 

In the year 1860, I was residing in the State of 
Texas, in a village called Hempstead, fifty miles 



AMONG THE REBELS. 249 

from Houston, on the railroad leading from that 
city to the northern limits of the State. In the 
month of November, before the State had as yet 
seceded, and before any vote had been taken on 
that question, our National flag had been dishon- 
ored, and trailed in the dust of the streets, by 
the rabble. As secession was the great topic of 
the day, and all classes of people were discussing 
it, some opposed, but the greater part in favor of it, 
I also, thinking myself a pretty good Southerner, 
ventured to have an opinion on the subject, and 
to express it, not dreaming of any danger or vio- 
lence to myself, from doing so. I happened to 
remark, in a private conversation, that, if the 
South should secede from the Union, there would 
be war ; and that, in the event of a war between 
the North and the South, the institution of slavery 
would be overthrown. This I said, not from any 
unfriendly feeling to the South or to Slavery — 
but I intended it merely as an argument, why 
the South ought not to secede, but to adhere 
to the Union. I also further remarked, that 
in such a contest, the North would have every 
advantage over the South, as they had the navy, 
and in numerical force, were three times as 
strong as the South. 



250 



I should have remembered, that, in expressing 
these opinions, I was not a slave-holder, and, there- 
fore, not one of the privileged class. I was 
waited on the next morning, while at breakfast, 
by five of the most prominent citizens of the town, 
who informed me, that, as it was understood, I 
had expressed opinions at variance with the views 
and feelings of the resident population, my pres- 
ence was desired at a public meeting, which would 
be immediately convened. 

I will confess that I felt some misgivings at 
first, knowing that hundreds of men had, during 
the past few months, fallen victims and been hung 
by the blood-thirsty and brutal mob of the State ; 
and that I had myself narrowly escaped out of 
their hands only two months before — so narrowly 
indeed, that my name had actually been inserted 
among those who had been hung, in several news- 
papers of the state. 

The meeting was called, at once, and there was 
some excitement. But I had several friends at 
that meeting, who knew that I was not an abo- 
litionist. Fortunately, Colonel Wash. Crawford, 
an eloquent lawyer from the neighboring town of 
Washington, and the most influential man in four 
counties around, was there. He arose, and, unex- 



AMONG THE REBELS. 251 

pectedly by all, made such a speech in my defense, 
as shamed even those who had accused me. He 
had known me for several years, and my own 
conscience acquitted me of the charge of abolition- 
ism. If any body had called me an abolitionist 
at that time, I should have considered it a gross 
personal insult. 

I was released, and, of course, I was free once 
more, but not to express my opinions without re- 
serve. I was taught, that, from that day, I must 
observe caution. But I have, ever since, con- 
sidered myself indebted to Colonel Crawford, for 
my rescue out of the hands of a lawless rabble. 

I did not feel safe, and could not breathe freely 
in Texas, from that day ; and, although all the 
interests I had in this world, lay in that State, 
I began to think seriously of leaving it. As soon 
as I could make the necessary arrangments, I did 
leave, and found myself in New Orleans, in the 
following April. 

On the 12th of that month, the rebel batteries 
were opened on Fort Sumter. I had, till then, 
cherished the vain hope, that, somehow, or in some 
way, the dreaded crisis might be avoided. But 
now, all hope of the kind, was gone, and my mind 
was decided. I was convinced that God had 



252 THE author's experience 

made the Southern people mad, in order that they 
might bring ruin and judgment on themselves, and 
I said in my heart — Amen— So let it be — since 
they will have it so. There is no reflecting mind 
in the country, but must accord in tlie sentiment 
of General Hamilton, expressed in one of his late 
speeches — '* The veriest skeptic^ one who never before 
believed in a God, cannot but recognize in this war, 
the hand of the Almighty. Slavery has been permit- 
ted to perform its mission, and its career is ended. ^'' 

As I was necessarily detained, for sev<^ral 
months, in New Orleans, endeavoring to transact, 
through an agent, some unsettled business in Tex- 
as, I again, suddenly and unexpectedly found my- 
self in limbo. I was summoned before his honor, 
Mayor John T. Monroe, to answer to the charge 
of having expressed TJiiion sentiments. The in- 
formants against me w^ere Messrs. Smith and 
Eucker, certain horse traders, who had been stop- 
ping a few days at the same boarding-house with 
myself. The substance of their complaint against 
me was, that I had said, I was for the Union. . 
In this, however, they falsified, for they had never 
heard me make use of any such remark. I had 
endeavored to be guarded in my words. It was 
however, perhaps, a fair inference from remarks I 



AMONG THE REBELS. 253 

had made use of, in a casual conversation with 
one of them. 

In speaking of the state of affairs in Missouri, 
I did incidentally remark that the majority of 
the people in the State, ought to rule — and that 
Gov. Jackson ought to be governed by the action 
of the Convention, which was the only medium, 
through which, the voice of the people could be 
heard. He dissented from the view expressed by 
me, and the next day I had a citation to appear 
before the Mayor, to answer for my words. I had 
never had the slightest personal altercation or 
difficulty with either of the above named ac- 
cusers. I had never wronged them, and I can 
think of no motive which could have actuated 
them, thus, voluntarily and gratuitoiisly, to become 
my accusers, only their hostility to the Union. I 
have not been able to learn what became of 
Smith, as I lay in durance vile for nine months. 
But I do know that Rucker, several months 
prior to the arrival of General Butler to the 
city, went, on a cattle speculation, into Texas. 
He had obtained the cattle, a very large herd, 
and he would have made a fortune by the specu- 
lation, for beef was then selling in the city for 
twenty-five to fifty-cents per pound. But unluck- 



254 THE author's experience 

ily for him, the cattle were on the coast, above 
the city, just as Admiral Farragutt passed up 
•with his victorious fleet, and he captured the 
whole drove. Rucker afterwards appealed to 
General Butler, and whether by taking the oath, 
or by some other process I cannot say, obtained 
damages to the amount of some hundred-thous- 
and dollars, less or more. As he is still in the 
city of New Orleans, enjoying his otium cum 
dignitate, I trust this matter will be more thor- 
oughly sifted, as it can be reduced to a demon- 
stration that he was a thorough rebel, and that 
he intended the cattle for the Confederates, and 
not for the Federal 'Army. 

The Mayor turned me over to the care and 
guardianship of Harry Mitchell, keeper of the City 
Work House, who had acquired such distinction 
as a recruiting officer for the rebel army, that 
even Russell, of the London Times, heard of his 
fame, and had to pay him a compliment in his 
journal, while on his visit to the city. He says : 
" The New Orleans papers are facetious over 
their new mode of securing unanimity, and high- 
ly laud what they call the course of instruction 
in the humaAe institution for the amelioration of 
the condition of Northern barbarians, and aboli- 



AMONG THE REBELS. 255 

tion fanatics, presided over by Professor Henry 
Mitchell, who, in other words, is the jailer of 
the Work House Reformatory." 

That course of instruction^ over which the papers 
were so facetious, was usually not very long, but 
it was most thorough. I should suppose that 
the Professor sent not less than a thousand men 
into the rebel army. I will not dvrell on the 
means employed by him to get soldiers to enlist, 
but will give a single case, which may serve to 
convey some general idea. 

Three Irishmen had been brought into the 
Work House, at one time. They said that they 
had been arrested, for no other offense, only that 
they had refused to enlist as soldiers in the 
Confederate Army. Whether they stated the 
truth or not, as to the cause of their arrest 
and incarceration, it is certain, that, on the 
very next day after, they were called on by 
Professor Mitchell, with a recruiting officer, and 
asked, whether they would enlist, on condition 
of being released from the Work House, which 
all three of them promptly declined to do. The 
Professor and the recruiting officer went away ; 
but, the day after, those three men were loaded 
with irons, and set at work breaking rock, with 



256 THE author's experience 

heavy sledges. A negro, perhaps, might stand it 
to break rock all day long, in the hot sun, with 
a twenty pound sledge, and irons weighing sixty 
or seventy pounds chafing his ancles, but no Irish- 
man can stand it, and, at the end of the first day, 
the three men signified their willingness to enlist 
in the rebel army ; and accordingly, the Professor 
turned them over to the recruiting of&cer. 

Perhaps, I might not have given the Professor 
a notice, so much more extended than Mr. Russell 
thought it necessary to bestow on him, but for the 
fact, that, I am under greater obligations than 
Mr. Russell for personal attentions received from 
the Professor. And besides, as he still presides 
over the same " humane institution,^^ under tlie aus- 
pices of the Federal Government, it is no more 
tlian simple justice to let the public know, that he 
is a faithful servant to those who employ him, at 
one hundred and fifty dollars per month, with the 
perquisites of office, amounting to as much more. 

I cannot speak of what I suffered in that Work- 
House. I could wish that the nine months of 
cruel penance there for Liberty's and conscience' 
sake, could be blotted from my memory. Invol- 
untarily, sometimes, as thought recurs to that dark 
period, I find my hand pressing my forehead, as 



AMONG THE REBELS. 257 

if I would press back the thought, and relieve 
myself of such melancholy recollections. 

How varied are the scenes of this life ! What 
a world of tribulation we live in ! There may be 
those who receive their portion of good things 
here ; but tlie christian should ever bear in mind, 
that, if he would wear the crown at last, he must 
first learn to endure the cross — according to the 
saying of one of the best saints that ever lived, — 



258 



XX. 

CONCLUSION.— THREE PARTIES. 

The stern and inflexible justice of Jehovah, 
in superintending and directing the affairs of po- 
litical States and kingdoms, is the great and 
practical lesson, which we have learned from 
this war. Slavery was a great evil — -just as 
great as has been represented, and as has been 
proved, by facts which cannot be controverted — 
but it was not too great an evil for the Genius 
of Christianity to conquer and destroy. It was 
a system that must have crumbled and disap- 
peared gradually, before the moral power of 
truth and righteousness, as the Gospel gained 
sway. It would be a stigma upon our Divine 
system of religion, to say, that there is not a 
moral energy in the Gospel, adequate to the final 
overthrow of slavery. To deny to Christianity 
the possession of this moral power, would be a 
concession to infidelity, which we are not willing 



CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 259 

to make. It is the power, by which, the com- 
plete moral renovation of the world is to be 
effected, and the consummation of the Millennial 
age to be achieved. 

Christianity has, more than once, demonstrated 
its power, to grapple with and vanquish the 
monster, Slavery, with the weapons of spiritual, 
instead of carnal and bloody warfare. For, it 
was nothing else but the voice of Christianity, 
as has been before insisted, speaking through 
some of her noblest sons, which led to the sup- 
pression of the African Slave Trade, and the 
emancipation of the slaves in the British West 
Indies, without Mood. With multiplied proofs of 
this kind, as to the power of the Gospel, it 
would betray the most inexcusable ignorance, or 
something worse, to assert that the redemption of 
our own land from the curse of slavery, might not 
have been effected in the same peaceful and blood- 
less manner. 

But there was an insurmountable barrier in 
the way, and that was the law of Jehovah's 
Throne, requiring that JVational crimes shall be 
corrected by JYational judgments. So much inno- 
cent blood had been shed, that, an atonement, 
by blmd, had become indispensable, to vindicate 



260 CONCLUSIOX. — THREE PARTIES. 

the justice of the Divine La^r. Here was Jus- 
tice arrayed against Mercy, in a case, where it 
was necessary that the latter should yield to the 
former. Many good men and statesmen, besides 
Mr. Jefferson, predicted, long ago. that the claims 
of justice would yet be vindicated, against the 
slave-tyranny. 

The Secessionists of the South, or the Pro- 
Slavery party, are directly responsible for the 
war, and all its consequences. 

The radical Abolition party, in the Free States, 
must have the credit, by their agitation of the 
subject of slavery, and their violent and offen 
sive manner of conducting the controversy, of 
having alienated the Southern people, and driven 
them to that suicidal act, by which they rushed 
on their own destruction. The collision between 
these two parties, led to the awful tragedy, of 
which this great land is, at present, the theater. 
If there had been no Abolitionists, there would 
have been no Secessionists, and, of course, no 
civil war. But now, since the consummation has 
been reached, we have no fault to find with the 
means, since it was brought about, in the Divine 
Purpose, to scourge and correct the nation. 

It would be unjust, however, not to discriminate 



CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 261 

between this radical Abolition party, and the true, 
loyal Anti-slavery party of the country, who, in- 
deed, constitute the mass of the intelligent and 
honest citizens This loja). Anti-slavery party 
— that was the Conservative party before the 
rebellion — had no part, and no instrumentality 
whatever, in the horrible deed of initiating the 
war. They endeavored to prevent it. They were 
always in favor of conciliation and compromise ; 
and, if their counsels had prevailed, there would 
have been no war. 

President Lincoln is, to-day, at the head of that 
party, and he represents them ; but he is not an 
abolitionist. Secretary Chase is another noble 
and patriotic representative of the same party. 
And we may say of nearly every great and lead- 
ing mind in the country, who has anything to do 
with the Government or the Army, that they be- 
long to this loyal, Anti-slavery party. It was the 
party to which Washington once belonged, and 
Jefferson, and the Adamses, and Madison, and Ben- 
jamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton, and the 
peerless Webster, and tlie eloquent Henry Clay. 
For every one of them believed slavery to be an 
evil, and deplored its existence. But it would 
be an insult to the memory of any of them to 



262 COXCLUSION.— THREE PARTIES. 

say, that they were Abolitionists, of the Wendell 
Philips and Garrison school. 

And can we believe — would it be possible to 
persuade us, that, with the whole moral power and 
spirit of Christianity, in opposition to slavery, and 
the sentiments of all these great statesmen and 
philanthropists, whether now living, or dead, ar- 
rayed against the horrible system, it could have 
prolonged its existence beyond the close of the 
present century, if the Abolitionists had not sprung 
up, and interfered with the work which they had 
begun, of bringing about a reformation by mild 
and peaceful measures which are so much more 
in harmony with the laws of Divine Charity ? But 
I reiterate what has been already remarked, that, 
crimes of such a nature had been committed 
against the rights of humanity, in the name of 
Liberty, that Heaven must have suspended its or- 
dinary laws, not to have exacted a terrible retri- 
bution from this Nation. Hence the Abolitionists 
had a mission to perform. 

The party has been in existence over thirty 
years, and what have they accomplished in that 
time? They did not convince slave-holders of 
their error, but, rather drove them, in self-defense, 
to adopt the divine-right principle in favor of 



CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 263 

slavery — a principle which, never before, had been 
asserted. They did not lighten the oppression of 
the slave, but rivetted tighter the chains of his 
bondage, as thousands who have lived at the South 
could readily testify. And finally, to them be- 
longs the honor of having been employed as the 
instruments to bring this war upon the country, to 
the end that it might be purged and redeemed. 

In speaking of the Radical Abolition party, I 
would be understood as referring to those, only, 
who advocated the " Malum in se " theory. This 
was the Mew Gospel^ which caused the division of 
churches, founded under the preaching of the Old 
Gospel, and which existed together, in harmony 
and love for ages. It was this JYew Gospel which 
taught slaves to run away from their masters ; 
whereas, the Gospel preached by Paul had taught 
them to be " obedient " to their masters, and even 
to " endure grief, suffering wrongfully." This JVew 
Gospel taught slaves, that, in efi'ecting their escape 
from bondage, they might steal whatever articles 
they should consider necessary, to speed them in 
their flight to a land of freedom ; which was con- 
trary to the Moral law contained in the table of 
the ten commandments, which forbids theft. This 
J^eio Gospel required its expounders and advo- 



264 CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 

cates, to apply such kind and fraternal epithets, as 
man stealers kidnappers^ thieves, etc., to all their 
Southern bi ethren involved in the evil of slavery ; 
which was contrary to the Gospel of Christ, who, 
'when reviled, reviled not again, nor returned 
railing for railing." In fine, this JVew Gospel^ 
openly, inculcated treason against the Government, 
by denouncing the Union as a curse, a compact vnth 
hell, etc. ; and by disallowing, for years past, its 
leading defenders either to vote, or have anything 
else to do with a Government so corrupt. It is 
certain that if they had had the power, they would 
have destroyed the present Government and dis- 
solved the Union, thirty years ago. Their work 
is at length accomplished, and now their mission 
ends. 

But I do not intend by this to say that they 
have accomplished the destruction of the Union, 
although some of them have said, and are still 
saying that they donH want the old Union. I trust 
that old Union will be as lasting and firm as the 
mountains and hills of the great continent, over 
which it stretches. We would not acknowledge 
the mighty struggle in wliich we have been en- 
gaged, to maintain that old and glorious Union, 
formed by the wisdom and cemented by the blood 



CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 265 

of our ancestors, a failure, by saying that we shall 
have a new and better Union. A better Union 
it may be, but not a new one. If there was any 
dross, with that which before was gold, and that 
dross is separated or consumed by the fire through 
which we are passing, that is not to say that the 
gold itself is consumed. If there was a dangerous 
cancer or sore on the old body politic, and that 
sore has been probed and cut away by the scalpel 
which the war has applied to it, that is not to say 
that the body itself has been destroyed. 
' Let us not dishonor the memory of the great 
and good men who were specially raised up, for 
the purpose of forming the best Government ever 
yet enjoyed by any nation, under which we have 
so long lived and prospered, by saying that the 
work which they accomplished is a failure, -and 
we must organize a new government ! Shall we 
give up that grand old Republican form of 
Government which "Washington and his compeers 
bequeathed to us ? Never I Never ! ! If, from 
time to time, any defect or imperfection is found 
to exist, it may be remedied. If, in the Union 
itself, any weakness is discovered, even that may 
be remedied. This civil war will make the Union 
stronger than it ever was before. There may be 



266 CONCLUSION. — THREE PAETIES. 

fewer States, or more after the war, but it will be 
the same Union. There were but thirteen States 
when that Union was formed, but many States 
have been added to it since. Yet we do not say 
there is a new Union formed, every time a new 
State comes into it. It is the same old Union. 
Even so, if any State should drop out of the 
Union, it would not thereby be destroyed ; it 
would be the same Union still. 

It is a suggestive fact, that the loyal Anti-slavery 
party — it was the Conservative party before the 
war — we would call it the Constitutional party — 
some call it the Republican party, — and certainly, 
no one who is a Republican, ought to object to 
the name— but whatever name it may be known 
by, it is the party to whom that gracious Provi- 
dence which has ever watched over the destiny of 
the nation, has specially entrusted the maintenance 
of the Union, and the preservation of the Govern- 
ment, in the terrible and fiery ordeal through 
which we are passing. The two parties, the Pro- 
slavery and radical-Abolition — which sought to 
destroy the Union and brought the war upon the 
country, have been left out — Providdnce seems to 
allow them no part in administering the Govern- 
ment in the present crisis. It is a suggestive fi.ict. 



CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 267 

There is another party, which occupies rather 
an anomalous position at present — which can 
hardly be said to be a party, but a fragment of 
the old Democratic party — the Peace-party — the 
Copperhead-party — who live in the Free States, but 
whose sympathies and hearts are with the rebels 
at the South — who are in favor of a reconstruc- 
tion of the Union, with the institution of slavery 
intact — and this too, when they must see and 
know, that the horrors of slavery have reached 
their climax in the perpetration of the blackest 
treason against both Heaven and earth, ever yet 
committed by devils and wicked men ! This Peace- 
party should not live in the Free States, but they 
ought to take up their abode among their seces- 
sion friends at the South, where they properly 
belong. They may struggle on a little longer, 
as a drowning man catching at straws, to keep 
from sinking ; but it will bo a vain struggle. The 
power of the party for good or for evil, is at an 
end. 

The loyal Anti-slavery or Constitutional party, 
have ever been as much opposed, in sentiment, to 
slavery, as the radical Abolitionists themselves, 
and have ever believed that it was an evil of 
such a nature, as must necessarily come to an end, 



268 CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 

in the progress of events. But they were not 
willing to scatter firebrands, arrows and death, 
and to inyolre their country in the conflagration 
of a civil war, in order to destroy an Institution 
which they had no hand in creating. They were 
willing that the people in the States where it ex- 
isted, and that Wise Providence over them, that 
controls and disposes, finally, of all such ques- 
tions, should have the entire management of an 
affair, that had been placed beyond their own 
control. And now, when the people of those 
states have appealed to arms, and the Lord has 
permitted the madness^ to seal the doom of Slavery, 
what could we do, but accept the issue forced 
upon us ? The time for conciliation and compro- 
mise expired, when this issue was joined. It is 
vain to talk of Conservatism now. 

It is, perhaps, worthy of notice, how guarded 
and cautious our President has been, in striking 
down slavery, not to trample under foot at the 
same time, the Constitution which he was sworn 
to observe. While the Pro-slavery party have 
anathematized him for interfering with the Insti- 
tution at all, the radical Abolitionists have vili- 
fied and denounced him for not striking a more 
effective blow. They would have had him eman- 



CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 269 

cipate the slaves in the Loyal as well as in the 
disloyal States ; when they know he had no 
power to do so under the Constitution. It was 
only the War-power which gave him the right to 
emancipate the slaves of rebels — but it gave him 
no right to interfere with slavery in the loyal 
States. He has pursued a wise and prudent 
course ; and every loyal man in the country must 
honor and respect him for having confined him- 
self, strictly, within the limits of Constitutional 
authority. When slavery is dead in the rebel 
states, it will soon die a natural death, in the 
loyal districts where it has been left remaining. 
Public sentiment at the South against the Insti- 
tution, from present indications, will soon be so 
potent, and, almost overwhelming, that no man 
who thinks any thing of his own honor, will be 
willing to be known as a slave-holder, and they 
will voluntarily emancipate their slaves. The few 
who might be unwilling to do this, will find how 
utterly vain will be the attempt to hold their 
slaves still in bondage, when the slaves all 
around have obtained their freedom. It would 
be contrary to the instincts of humanity, to sup- 
pose that these millions of emancipated slaves, 
who have just begun to taste the sweets of 



270 CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 

liberty, would feel no sympathy for their breth- 
ren still held in bondage, and make no efforts 
for their liberation. Yes, slavery is dead — the 
temple of the huge and decrepit old idol is de- 
molished. The wheels of his bloody car had 
crushed more victims into the earth, than ever 
did that of Juggernaut. But, I venture to pre- 
dict, that, in ten years more, our American soil, 
thrice hallowed and consecrated with blood, will 
not be pressed by the foot of a single slave. 

And to whom will the honor of this victory 
be due? To the Pro-slavery party? Just as 
much due to them as to the radical Abolitionists. 
They made the war, and the war has destroyed 
Slavery. But they did not aim at this result? — 
they made the war to maintain and perpetuate 
slavery. Will the honor be due to the radical 
Abolition party ? The party has ever been very 
small and insignificant. They have never liad 
control of the National Government. They did 
not send forth the proclamation of freedom to 
the slaves — and they have never brought liberty 
to a single slave, except perhaps to a few scores, 
whom they may have aided to run away from 
their masters. If their leaders could have suc- 
ceeded in their designs they would have dissolved 



CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 271 

the Union long ago, and erected two Republics 
out of the old one, viz : a free and a slave-Re- 
Republic ; separated from one another only by 
Mason's and Dixon's line, but giving to the latter 
the richest and fairest portion of the American 
Continent, over which to extend and propagate 
the curse of slavery, perhaps for centuries to come. 
No, a Wise Providence has conferred on the 
loyal. Anti-slavery party, the honor of terminating 
the existence of this evil in our land. President 
Lincoln, acting as executioner, held the axe in his 
hand, by which the head of the old Dagon was 
severed from his body. 

In conclusion, the christian reader will not fail 
to see most palpable proofs of the guidance and 
leadings of that Wise Providence, in all the re- 
markable vicissitudes through which, as a people, 
we have been made to pass. It was not because 
the Lord abhorred us as a people, but because 
of his great favor towards us, that he hath purged 
us, as gold is purified in a furnace. We have a 
great mission to perform, and there is a bright 
destiny before us, in the future ; and it was 
necessary that we should receive a discipline to 
prepare us for both. It was designed that we 
should be not only a great, but an upright people. 



272 CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 

Who can doubt, that, when this war is over we 
shall be a greater and a more liberty-loving peo- 
ple than ever before? Our mission is to give to 
the nations of the earth, a practical demonstra- 
tion of the great problem, never before solved, 
that, man is capable of self government. It is to be 
our destiny, to teach all tyrants and oppressors, 
that their days are numbered. We are to be a 
city set on a hill, whose light cannot be hid. 
With what fond anticipations, and earnest, kind- 
ling hopes, the eyes of millions, are, at this mo- 
ment, turned towards this land ! We should be 
recreant to the trust committed to us by our 
Heavenly King, if we should disappoint them. 
But He will not permit us. I have come to 
believe, that, He has guarded and brought us on 
so far. He has us under his special guardianship. 
We know that all earthly blessings are prized, 
according to their cost. Why is it that the peo- 
ple of this country, value liberty and a free Gov- 
ernment, beyond all other possessions, except that 
they are the children of those, who passed the 
ordeal of a seven years' bloody war, under the 
most trying and painful circumstances, in order to 
obtain that boon ? If that war had had no other 
effect, than to generate in the whole American 



CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 273 

heart, an invincible and undying love for freedom, 
it wore an inheritance well worth all the cost. 

So, if we have been chastised with another three 
years^ war, on account of Slavery ; if we have 
been humbled to the dust, and made to drink our 
own tears, for having connived at oppression, un- 
der our free government ; and, if we have been 
compelled to loosen the fetters of every slave, after 
having sacrificed hundreds of thousands of our 
brave sons and brothers, what else can we expect, 
but, that it will serve still to strengthen our at- 
tachment to the cause of liberty and free govern- 
ment? Is it probable that, hereafter, we shall 
have any sympathies on the side of tyranny, in 
any of its forms ? All the discipline and training 
we have had, as a nationality, in the school of 
past experience, are of a nature to make us the 
devoted and perpetual friends of freedom. We 
have been educated and brought up in the school 
of independence. The words of the " Declaration 
of Independence," with us, will have a meaning, 
hereafter. There will be found neither knaves 
nor fools, who will attempt to fritter and explain 
away their significant import, as has so often been 
done, in the past. We have pretty thoroughly 
and practically learned the lesson of freedom, 



274 CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 

which it was the intention of the Divine Teacher 
that we should understand. 

I repeat nay most sincere and honest conviction, 
that, it is not for naught, our nation, as yet com- 
paratively in its infancy, and far from having at- 
tained its manhood, has been so violently rocked 
in the cradle of Liberty. We have a mission to 
perform. Onward then, my grand, noble, free 
country ! God speed thee onward, to the achieve- 
ment of the wonderful destiny before thee I Me- 
thinks, I see in thy extended horizon, on every 
side, the dawning of a glorious morning. 



FINIS. 



3kn-2 



